Scraping the Remains of Village Funds

August 16, 2026 | 01:00 pm

TEMPO.CO, Jakarta - The 26-by-14-meter concrete frame stands on land owned by Tepi Laut village in Air Napal subdistrict, North Bengkulu Regency. On either side are piles of bricks, excavated earth, and abandoned construction materials. Only the black roof gives any indication that the concrete frame was meant to become a building.

According to Zakaria, Chief of Tepi Laut village, the structure was supposed to be a multipurpose community hall. But construction, which began last year, has stalled after the village coffers ran dry. The trigger was a cut in village funds from Rp670 million (around US$37,600) in 2025 to just Rp251 million (US$14,000) this year. “The project is only 65 percent complete,” he said on Tuesday, August 4, 2026.

Zakaria said he had offered the site to several parties who approached him about building a red-and-white village cooperative. Its location is strategic, next to the village chief’s office and along the main road linking North Bengkulu Regency with Mukomuko Regency in Bengkulu. But the offer was rejected, he said, because the structure did not conform to the standard cost estimates for a cooperative building.

The cuts to village funds have affected more than the multipurpose hall, Zakaria said. Plans to build an agricultural hub road, drill a well, and install streetlights have also been scrapped. The road leading to residents’ plantations is in poor condition and prone to accidents. In the end, Zakaria rallied residents to repair it themselves through communal work. “The condition had become untenable,” he said.

Read the Complete Story in Tempo English Magazine

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