Jakarta, 4 February 2016 – The Ministry of Villages, Development of Disadvantaged Regions and Transmigration on 1 February inaugurated the formation of the Village Task Force with the hope of accelerating and ensuring the accurate distribution, use and management of village funds. To ensure that this goal is realized, the Minister of Villages, Development of Disadvantaged Regions and Transmigration, Marwan Jafar, has assigned task force members to continuously carry out outreach and supervision of the use of village funds, which in 2016 amounted to more than IDR 46 trillion.

Even though he appreciated the steps taken by Minister Marwan, PATTIRO Executive Director Sad Dian Utomo said that the government’s target of accelerating the distribution of village funds would be difficult to achieve if the village task force was only assigned to carry out socialization and supervision of the use of village funds. “The Village Task Force must be able and serious about accelerating the distribution of village funds. “We have to take concrete steps, it’s not enough just to do socialization,” stressed Sad Dian.

Previously, data from the Ministry of Villages, Development of Disadvantaged Regions and Transmigration showed that in general, until August 2015, the distribution of village funds from the district government to the village government had only reached 30-35% of the total budget disbursed “Even though it should have been at that time the distribution of village funds “It has reached 80%,” said Sad Dian.

Unfortunately, Sad Dian said, if the government and the Village Task Force are unable to learn lessons and immediately take action, such delays have the potential to be repeated in the process of disbursing village funds in 2016. This is because there are still many villages that have not yet prepared Village Revenue and Expenditure Budgets ( APBDes), even though the APBDes document is one of the main requirements that village governments must complete so that hundreds of millions of funds from the central government can be disbursed.

Based on PATTIRO’s findings in the field, all villages in one district in South Sulawesi until January 2016 had not prepared a Village Revenue and Expenditure Budget (APBDes). Village activist from PATTIRO Jeka [i] Firmansyah explained that the delay in disbursement was caused by many factors.

First, Firman explained, the Community Empowerment and Village Government Agency (BPMPD) was not orderly in providing assistance. “Village meetings discussing planning for the use of village funds in 2016 were only held last January. “Even though the deliberation should have been held in June 2015,” he added.

Apart from that, Firman said, the delay occurred because the capacity of the village government and BPMD was still lacking, so both of them often had difficulty holding village meetings. “This also happens because the village assistant has not accompanied the village government optimally, his role is still at the stage of providing socialization,” said Firman. The village government also argued that they had not completed the accountability report for the use of funds in 2015 and the district government had not yet determined the village’s indicative ceiling, both village funds and Village Fund Allocation (ADD).

Reflecting on these things, Sad Dian said, the Village Task Force could start to speed up the distribution of village funds by proposing the preparation of technical policies and taking steps to resolve problems faced by the village government (often called control) such as ensuring that village assistants help prepare the Village APBDes, Work Plans. Village Government (RKPDes), and accountability reports on budget use. “The Village Task Force must also be able to identify which villages have not prepared the required documents for the disbursement of village funds. They have to facilitate them,” concluded Sad Dian.

In essence, Sad Dian emphasized that the Village Task Force must provide a solution to the various problems and difficulties faced by the village government in disbursing and using village funds. “The Village Task Force must provide solutions and help solve village problems. “Don’t just monitor it,” stressed Sad Dian.

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PATTIRO Jeka is one part of the PATTIRO Raya network located in Jeneponto Regency, South Sulawesi