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Jakarta education assistance still marred with misuse: Council
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For our brighter future -- School students show their Jakarta Smart Cards (KJP) in an event held by the City administration. (Tempo/File)
T
he Jakarta Legislative Council has revealed that misuse of the Jakarta Smart Card (KJP) education financial assistance program is still occurring in several areas across the city, in which some people were found to have been buying and selling the cards.
The council regretted such a practice, saying the city administration had allocated Rp 2.3 trillion (US$175.30 million) specifically for the assistance program.
City Council member from the Democratic Party faction, Taufiqurrahman, said the sale and purchase of the KJP were found to have occurred in two areas in West Jakarta, namely Cengkareng and Palmerah market, and at the Cityloft Mall in Central Jakarta. He suspected such practices had been occurring in several other places.
“In some markets, we found shops with signboards, which read ‘Accepting payments with KJP’. However, we later found that the cards could be exchanged with cash with a fee ranging between 3 to 10 percent,” Taufiqurrahman said during a plenary meeting on Friday.
To prevent such incidents from happening in the future, he said the council suggested the city administration enable the role of school cooperatives in the use of the KJP by installing electronic data capture (EDC) facilities so that students could be able to buy school supplies at their schools.
Responding to the city councilor’s statement, Jakarta Governor Basuki “Ahok” Tjahaja Purnama said the number of KJP misuse cases had been decreasing.
“If we find people misusing the KJP in any shops or markets, we will revoke their benefits. We will also immediately revoke the license of the shop. We can even expel it from the market,” Ahok said. (ebf)
