Director General of Village Governance Expects Village Spending to be Right on Target

TEMPO.CO, Denpasar - As a commitment of President Joko Widodo's (Jokowi) administration to build Indonesia from the periphery, the government has disbursed village funds since the enactment of Law No. 6/2014 on Villages. However, in order to bring maximum contribution to the economy, village officials must ensure village spending is right on target.

Directorate General Secretary of Village Governance Paudah said this during the closing of the "Training on Capacity Building for Village Government Officials and Village Institutional Management through the Strengthening Village Government and Village Development Program (P3PD) Year 2023", at the Aston Hotel, Denpasar, Thursday, Oct. 26, 2023.

Paudah explained that P3PD is one of the central government's efforts to improve the quality of good village spending by increasing the knowledge of village officials.  

Overall, this training involved a total of 33,458 villages spread throughout the province. As for Bali Province, it involved 1,900 participants from 475 villages who came from elements of the village government apparatus and village institutional administrators in Bali Province. 

"The training process has been completed and I believe that all of you who have participated in this training have certainly been able to understand every lesson taught," he said. 

He hopes that the training lessons will be implemented according to the situation, conditions, and needs in their respective villages.

During the occasion, Paudah also emphasized that efforts to accelerate sustainable village development are not only seen in terms of infrastructure development but also in terms of developing the quality of resources in the village.

"Especially excellent human resources so that they can manage natural resources optimally and bring welfare to the community that will improve the economy in the village," he explained.

An initial assessment found some main challenges of village governance. These challenges include the lack of optimization of basic services and the lack of strong human resource capacity of village officials, resulting in social inequality and poverty in the village. 

The Village Officials have also not maximized village resources and potential to support the village economy, and in turn have not contributed significantly to the development of the village economy.

Planning and budgeting capacity is also still inclusive. As a result, data utilization in every stage of development is still inadequate, which then affects the development and economic base of the village community which is still separate.

"Through this capacity building for village officials, you are expected to be able to absorb every lesson presented, so as to increase the three domains of KAS, which is Knowledge, Attitude, and Skills," he said.

Meanwhile, the Head of Bali Community Empowerment and Civil Registration Office (Dinas PMD Dukcapil) Putu Anom Agustina said that since the enactment of the Village Law, villages have been given the authority to govern their own households. 

With this authority, villages are expected to be able to achieve their development goals optimally. But regrettably, this has not been followed by effective and efficient management of the village budget (APBDes). "Village spending has not been optimized," he said.  (*)

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