REPUBLIKA.CO.ID, MANADO -- Finance Minister Bambang Brodjonegoro said that the village funds allocated for 2015 amounting to Rp20.7 trillion can maximally be absorbed at the end of the year.

"In the first stage, the central government has transferred 90 percent of the funds to 90 percent of over 74 thousand villages in Indonesia," the finance minister said here on Sunday.

Minister Brodjonegoro was visiting Lola, Bolaang Mongodow District, North Sulawesi to popularize the village fund policy.

The minister said the problem is how to use the funds once they are already transferred to villages' accounts.

"Of course, we will understand if the absorption of the funds is slow because this policy is the first of its kind. This is the first experience for village heads, district chiefs and mayors," Brodjonegoro said.

The delay in the absorption of the funds can be caused by the fact that villages have to draft village budgets and projects that they will finance.

Therefore, the minister added, the Ministry of Home Affairs will organize technical training for village apparatuses in an effort to increase the capacity of village heads and financial managers.

He said the training would be conducted after the popularization of the village fund policy was conducted.

The technical training will focus on how to manage village funds well and to account for their usage in accordance with the law.

The Ministry of Disadvantaged Region and Transmigration will also provide guidance for all villages across the country. The guidance can be with a new guidance system or with the previous system, namely the National Program for Community Empowerment (PNPM) system.

He said that the Government's Development Finance Comptroller (BPKP) would also provide support for all village heads and officials on how to manage manage funds taken from the state budget based on regulations.

According to the minister, the village chiefs must also make a report on the first phase of village funds which have been launched by the central government.

"It is clear that if the districts and municipalities do not immediately distribute the funds that they have received from the central government, the transfer of the fiscal gap funds will be postponed or cut," the minister said.

The central government will send the second phase of the village funds to the general treasury accounts of all villages in August this year.

The government has to be responsible or make a report about the first phase use of the village funds, he affirmed.

The central government has allocated Rp402.55 billion of the village funds to North Sulawesi province in 2015.

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