Akmalal Hamdhi, Ricki Putra Harahap, Jakarta – The government will remove social aid recipients found to have misused their funds for online gambling or terrorism financing, State Secretary Prasetyo Hadi said on Friday, following a shocking revelation by the country's financial intelligence agency.
"We will evaluate, and yes, we can remove them from the list," Prasetyo told reporters at the Presidential Palace on Friday. "We now have accurate, by-name, by-address data, so it is clear who is involved and which account numbers are in question."
Prasetyo added that the government's integrated National Socioeconomic Single Data (DTSEN), which is continuously updated, would support efforts to evaluate and improve the accuracy of social assistance distribution, ensuring aid is channeled to eligible recipients.
The statement came after the Financial Transaction Reports and Analysis Center (PPATK) disclosed that 571,410 bank accounts belonging to recipients of government social assistance were suspected of conducting online gambling transactions, with deposits totaling Rp 957 billion across 7.5 million transactions.
PPATK's analysis, conducted by cross-checking the national identification numbers (NIK) of 28.4 million aid recipients with data from 9.7 million online gambling users in 2024, revealed that a significant number of aid recipients were actively gambling online. The agency also discovered that several NIKs were linked to corruption cases and that over 100 individuals were identified as being involved in terrorism financing.
"This is a shocking finding. We all need to safeguard state social assistance funds to ensure they are used properly and reach those who truly need them," said Natsir Kongah, Head of Public Relations at PPATK.
PPATK noted that 57.6 percent of the identified aid recipients were men, while 42 percent were women, with West Java recording the highest number of suspected online gamblers among aid recipients, followed by Central Java and South Sumatra. Housewives, teachers, and the unemployed were among the most common professions linked to the online gambling transactions.
Natsir said the current findings are based on data from only one banking institution and that the figures could increase as the investigation expands.