Ridwan Max Sijabat, Jakarta – Calls for the government to begin training programs for millions of unskilled workers using billions of dollars in dedicated funds may be impossible to answer due to irregularities in the use of the funds over the years.
Labor exporters have been calling for training programs, saying that the government, through the Ministry of Manpower and Transmigration, has collected billions of dollars in non-income taxes from Indonesian workers overseas and expatriates here in a bid to raise funds to finance training programs for unskilled workers.
Labor exporters are concerned over reports that Indonesian workers might not be able compete with foreign workers when the regional liberalization drive in the labor sector begins next year, due to a lack of skills and poor preparation by the government.
When asked why the government was not using these funds to set up training programs, a senior official at the Ministry of Manpower and Transmigration said the ministry could not provide an accountability report for the use of the funds for many years.
"The ministry, which has been in charge of collecting the training funds, has no accurate data on the precise amount of funds, the utilization of the funds and the number of workers trained with the funds. There are irregularities and this must be fixed immediately," the secretary-general of the Manpower and Transmigration Ministry, Tjeppy Al'oewi, told The Jakarta Post at his office on Friday.
The ministry collected US$20 from each Indonesian worker sent to Saudi Arabia from the 1980s to 2000, and $15 from all Indonesian workers sent overseas for the last five years. Expatriates working in Indonesia have been required to pay $100 a month to help finance labor training programs.
Indonesia sent about 15,000 workers to Saudi Arabia from the 1980s to 2000, and about 40,000 workers monthly to foreign countries over the last five years. The number of expatriates working in Indonesia has varied between 13,000 and 35,000 over the last 35 years. There are more than 28,000 foreign workers registered with the Manpower and Transmigration Ministry, industrial zones and the Investment Coordinating Board.
An official at the same ministry said not all of the funds were channeled to the labor training division at the ministry as originally planned, with a huge part of the money going to other divisions in the ministry and to other ministries to finance development projects.
The director general for labor placement and training affairs at the ministry, Kirnadi, explained that while the ministry collected the funds, the money had to be transferred to the Ministry of Finance before being redistributed.
"Some 38 percent of the collected funds are kept by the Ministry of Finance," he said.
Kirnadi said some of the money had also been distributed to labor unions in the hope that they would set up training program for workers.
However, labor unions and labor exporters denied receiving money. The Confederation of Indonesian Prosperous Labor Union and the Confederation of All-Indonesian Workers Union (KSPSI) said separately they had never received any of the funds. "The BPK should audit the use of the funds," KSPSI chairman Jacob Now Weal said, referring to the Supreme Audit Agency.
The chairman of the Association of Indonesian Labor Supplying Companies, Hasein Alaydrus, also said his group had not received training funds from the government.
Training and retraining programs are seen as urgent because it is feared that Indonesian workers, many uneducated and lacking skills, will be unable to compete with foreign workers when the ASEAN Free Trade Area is fully implemented beginning next year.