At a press conference held at the Indonesian Ombudsman's office here on Thursday, a member of the Indonesian Ombudsman, Yeka Hendra Fatika, said that the Ministry of Agriculture and the FMD task force followed up on several recommendations made by the Ombudsman on the prevention and control of the FMD outbreak, such as accelerating vaccinations among livestock and carrying out independent vaccinations.
However, the Ombudsman found several things that indicated negligence and slowness on part of the Ministry of Agriculture while undertaking measures to handle the outbreak, he added.
The Agricultural Quarantine Agency of the Agriculture Ministry was negligent in supervising livestock mobility between regions amid the outbreak, which led to an increase in the spread of FMD, he expounded.
"The spread of FMD has been increasing, from (infections being) confirmed in two provinces on May 9, 2022, to 22 provinces as of July 13," he said.
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According to Fatika, the increasing number of infected farm animals could affect the number of deaths, which could trigger a decline in agricultural productivity and an increase in economic losses.
Due to negligence and delay in overcoming and controlling the FMD outbreak, Fatika said that the Indonesian Ombudsman plans to raise the status of public service supervision from monitoring to investigation in the context of fulfilling aspects of public services.
The Ombudsman has advised the task force to carry out all its duties and exercise its authority for tackling and controlling the FMD outbreak in accordance with the laws.
The task force has also been advised to develop cross-stakeholder coordination and networking for the prevention and control of the FMD outbreak and to strengthen the provision of transparent and reliable data.
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Translator: Tri Meilani, Raka Adji
Editor: Suharto
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