The Village Fund as Indonesian Social Welfare Program: The gap between regulatory and practice (a study on penal perspective)

Abstract

The State through Law No. 6 /2014 on Villages allocates a National Budget (APBN) for villages. Substantial financial support for villagers is expected to be able to support the development. Unfortunately, the Village Fund Program has become a root of corruption cases which has caused many villagers to live in poverty. The method used in this research is the normative juridical which focusing on secondary data in the form of primary, secondary and tertiary legal material to obtain a comprehensive, factual and accurate legal analysis on the village fund program in Indonesia while also provide a legal perspective of Anti-Corruption Law. The result of this study is village funds as part of APBN is State Finance. Therefore the abuse of authority by the chief or apparatus of villages management can be categorized as an act of corruption. However, the stipulation of "the abuse of authority" in Article 3 of the Anti Corruption Law should only be related to bribery. Because the authority of public officials on policymaking is not within the scope of criminal law, this is intended to prevent a criminalization. Therefore, criminal acts of corruption in village funds should be using Article 2 for the legal basis.