Nethy Dharma Somba, Jayapura – The Papua Police will monitor the use of village funds amounting to Rp 4.3 trillion (US$322 million) allocated for 5,420 villages in 28 regencies and one municipality across the province.

"The police will monitor the channeling of the village funds in Papua this year. Babinkamtibmas [police officers assigned to villages as advisors on security and public order] in villages will be trained to watch and guard the utilization of the funds," Papua Police head Insp. Gen. Boy Rafli Amar said on Wednesday.

He said two regencies and one municipality in Papua would pilot the involvement of National Police (Polri) personnel in the supervision and monitoring of village funds in the province.

"The Babinkamtibmas personnel who will receive training are from two regencies, namely Jayapura and Keerom, and Jayapura city," he said.

Commenting on the alleged misuse of village funds in two regencies, Pegunungan Bintang and Tolikara, Boy said the police were investigating the cases.

Pegunungan Bintang Regent Costan Oktemka said the investigation into the alleged village fund misuse began from a report that a village head in the regency had used some of the funds for his personal purposes.

"He cut the funds by up to Rp 15 million, claiming he would use it to pay taxes. It's wrong. The village head has been dismissed," said Costan.

Central Mamberamo Regent Ham Pagawak has dismissed two village heads for allegedly misusing village funds. "They used the funds to buy private houses. We dismissed them because village funds are allocated to develop villages, not for personal purposes," Ham said. (afr/ebf)

Source: http://www.thejakartapost.com/news/2017/08/30/papua-police-to-monitor-use-of-village-funds.html