Indonesia Shuts 833 Free-Meal Kitchens Over Quality Violations and Theft
The new head of Indonesia's nutrition agency permanently suspended 833 kitchens and fired 261 staff, some accused of stealing from President Prabowo's flagship program.
JAKARTA, July 27 (Reuters) - Indonesia's National Nutrition Agency, the body in charge of overseeing President Prabowo Subianto's flagship free-meal programme, has closed hundreds of kitchens due to violations or not meeting requirements, its chief told reporters on Monday.
• The NNA has "permanently suspended" 833 kitchens and has stopped payments to them due to violations of quality standards or failures in meeting the government's requirements, agency head Sudaryono said.
• The agency has fired 261 kitchen staff due to various reasons, including allegations of stealing money from the programme, he said.
• The programme has over 20,000 kitchens nationally.
• Sudaryono, who was appointed as the agency's head last week, said the moves are part of his efforts to clean up the running of the programme and improve governance of the scheme.
• The agency has been through a number of recent changes in leadership after its former chief was arrested in early June on corruption allegations, and then his successor resigned last week on health grounds.
• The programme was a key election promise of Prabowo and was launched in January 2025, but investors have been concerned about its cost and the risk of a larger fiscal deficit.
• Earlier this month, the government said it had further reduced the budget for the programme to 229 trillion rupiah ($12.81 billion) this year and said more cuts are possible. The initial budget for the scheme this year was 335 trillion rupiah.
(Reporting by Fransiska Nangoy; Editing by John Mair)
