"The higher the community's participation is, I am sure the level of corruption will decrease. Corruption in villages is caused by low community participation. Because it is considered that the community does not care," he said, according to a statement issued here on Tuesday.
He delivered the remarks at the opening of the "Training of Trainers (ToT) for Increasing the Capacity of Professional Assistants of the Village Governance and Development Strengthening Program (P3PD) Regional III with a Face-to-Face Method" in Jakarta on Monday.
According to him, with the increase in village funds, anticipatory measures against budget abuse are needed. The more funds are made available, the more problems will arise.
Based on data from the Ministry of Villages, Development of Disadvantaged Regions, and Transmigration, 45 corrupt village heads were reported in 2019, 132 in 2020, 159 in 2021, and 174 in 2022.
He noted that, in terms of anticipating the occurrence of corruption, village assistants must carry out their responsibility by increasing community participation in development.
"Our task is mitigating corruption by increasing community participation in village development. Thus, it (the number of participation) must really be increased so that there is a decrease in the number of corrupt village heads," he said.
To this end, he called for a house-to-house visit program to be carried out by village assistants this year to disseminate information on the development and empowerment of the village community.
"Starting from the planning, the funds used, who is entitled, how to participate, and so on. The target is to get more and more people to care," the minister said.
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Translator: Zubi Mahrofi, Raka Adji
Editor: Rahmad Nasution
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