The government claims 96% of beneficiary families are satisfied with the BPNT program
Reporter: Sinar Putri S.Utami | Editor: Noverius Laoli
KONTAN.CO.ID – JAKARTA. The government claims the non-cash food assistance program (BPNT) in 2018 was successful. This is based on a survey by the independent organization MicroSave Consulting Indonesia, which states that 96% of beneficiary families (KPM) and 89% of e-warongs are satisfied with the implementation of the BPNT program.
Representative of Microsave Consulting, Elwyn Sansius Panggabean, said the survey was conducted from October to December 2018, covering 93 cities / regencies in 25 provinces. “With a combination of quantitative and qualitative methods involving around 2,398 KPM and 779 e-warongs, as well as 30 other respondents from KPM and e-warong through in-depth interviews,” he said in a seminar at the Pullman Hotel, Monday (28/1).
The sample selection was carried out through a multi-stage multilevel randomized approach with a margin of error of about 5% and had considered the expansion of BPNT beneficiaries until July 2018. This is linear with the BPS poverty rate data that fell to a single digit of around 9.82% in March 2018 and 9.66% in September 2018.
Alwyn also said, based on the findings in the research, the beneficiary community stated that the location of ewarong is close to the KPM house with a travel time of about 10 minutes (median) and the median value of food costs per KPM household per month is around IDR 700 thousand with the majority of 4-5 family members. can meet one to two weeks or about 12-29% of the family’s food needs.
“These findings are a significant improvement note on the implementation of social assistance programs in 2017, because BPNT has succeeded in improving the accuracy in terms of the amount and timing of aid distribution, reduced queues, faster disbursement processes, and a significant reduction in technical problems such as empty balances, damage to the network / system, “he said.
Previously, in 2017 with the same assistance from BMGF, MicroSave Consulting also conducted an evaluation of the implementation of BPNT in 13 Provinces covering 43 Cities where the number of respondents at that time was around 2,355, consisting of 1,770 KPM and S85 e-warong.
In terms of e-warong as a distribution agent, the freedom to choose food suppliers with wholesalers and direct producers, in this case farmers or rice milling companies, is one of the most preferred things in this BPNT cooperation program because they can get greater benefits .
However, the role of Perum Bulog is also felt to be important because it provides easy payments so that it helps e-warongs in managing working capital. From the research findings, for example, about 85% of KPM have cell phones and the majority of them are smartphone.
This of course can be an input for stakeholders to consider alternative payment systems and new transactions that are easier, cheaper, and safer for the poor so that risks such as forgetting ‘PlN’ can be reduced.
On the other hand, the use of new accounts by BPNT recipients needs to be further encouraged so that they can support the achievement of other government programs such as increasing financial inclusion, improving the welfare of the poor through new business opportunities from cooperation between e-warong, banks, and Bulog.
In addition, to ensure a more accurate and timely audit and monitoring system, it is necessary to consider the development of a payment system platform and the monitoring of all social assistance programs by the government by utilizing technology as is practiced in other countries.
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