MALANG – The Director General (Dirjen) of Village Government Development (Bina Pemdes) of the Ministry of Home Affairs Eko Prasetyanto Purnomo Putro stated that the government had paid great attention to villages by continuing to increase the large budget allocation for village funds.
From 2015 to 2022, the total Village Funds allocated reached IDR 468.6 trillion. For 2023, the Central Government allocated a budget of IDR 70 trillion for village government.
“The ever-increasing village fund budget allocation certainly requires the readiness of government officials and village institutions to manage it well, carefully, orderly, and responsibly,” Eko said not long ago during a stakeholder strengthening meeting in the context of strengthening regional government for the Village Governance Strengthening and Developing Program (P3PD) Regional II.
This meeting is a strategic step to strengthen the Regional Government in supporting program implementation in the regions.
Apart from increasing stakeholder understanding, this activity also formulates an ‘Exit Strategy’ policy to encourage the sustainability of post-P3PD activities.
Eko added that the government has established policies to improve community welfare and overcome poverty through equitable development by building from the outskirts by strengthening regions and villages.
Therefore, development is no longer centralized in urban areas (centralization), but must be spread throughout Indonesia (decentralization).
This is in accordance with the mandate of Law Number 6 of 2014 concerning Villages, which aims to change the paradigm in developing villages, so that equitable development of cities and villages can be realized.
“It is hoped that this great attention can improve services for rural communities and reduce inequality between villages and cities,” Eko said.
Admitted that something is not optimal
However, Eko acknowledged that, in reality, there are still many villages lacking the ability to manage and utilize village funds optimally in the form of village spending.
In fact, village spending is often not fully directed at meeting the basic needs of village communities.
As a result, village funds have not been able to have a significant impact on the growth and development of productive economic activities, improving public services, and meeting the basic needs of the community at the village level.
This situation will generally encourage productive workers in rural areas to look for work in urban areas and cause villages to lack productive workers to manage the potential or resources that exist in the village. (NEWS ADVERTORIAL)
