THE EDITOR – Sintuwulemba Village in Lage Sub-district, Poso District, Central Sulawesi, is now more transparent to the public after its officials attended the Village Governance and Development Strengthening Programme (P3PD) training at the end of 2023.
The Editor had the opportunity to chat with Sintuwulemba Village Head Arif Pokan who was present at the announcement of the 2024 Village Competition held in Penglipuran Village, Bali, on 9 October 2024.
Sintuwulemba Village itself won the position of National Outstanding Village in 2024 held by the Directorate General of Village Government (Bina Pemdes) of the Ministry of Home Affairs.
“From the government on information disclosure and transparency, digitalisation is important and is the first benchmark in the success of the government,” he said.
Not only that, he also said that the implementation of P3PD brought Sintulemba to be one of the villages that is transparent in the way village funds are managed.
In order to be transparent, Arif admitted that he dared to use an online digital system to manage village funds from previously only using a manual system.
“It used to be manual. After participating in the P3PD training, we know that the village financial system built by the Ministry of Home Affairs and PTKP makes it very easy to manage financial funds in the village,” he said.
He gained this courage after the village officials from Sintulemba received P3PD training at the end of 2023.
Sintuwulemba village officials who initially did not have any knowledge about how to manage village funds online have now changed.
He even admitted that the P3PD training changed the face of his village in just a few months.
“Regarding the village apparatus and resources, we were all below average before, and the background of the apparatus was also not from finance. So the P3PD training makes it easier for all,” he explained.
VILLAGE SPENDING IS ALSO MORE FOCUSED
Thanks to the P3PD training, the Head of Sintuwulemba Village also admitted that he has become more focused in managing village expenditure.
One of his priorities is to direct village expenditure to empower the community where he lives, especially in the economic field.
“The most important thing is empowering the village community. So village spending is getting better quality, especially in the economic sector to increase PAD (Village Original Income),” he said.
