Arrears of Almost IDR 1 Billion, MBG Kitchen Stops Cooking

JAKARTA, KOMPAS – The catering service provider for the Free Nutritious Meal Program (MBG) in the Kalibata area, Pancoran, South Jakarta, claims to have incurred losses of nearly Rp 1 billion. The losses occurred because the MBG managing foundation has not paid for the catering services for two months.

As a result, the operations of the MBG kitchen for distribution around the Kalibata and Pancoran areas have been temporarily halted. Danna Harly from Harly Law, acting as the legal representative of the catering service provider, expressed regret over the actions of the MBN Foundation, which was appointed by the government to manage MBG, for failing to pay his client's dues. In fact, his client had already prepared 65,025 portions of MBG over the course of two months.

"The dispute occurred in March 2025. It began when our client discovered discrepancies in the budget for PAUD, kindergarten, or elementary school students," said Danna during a press conference at Dapur MBG Kalibata, South Jakarta, on Tuesday afternoon (15/4/2025).

According to Danna, based on the cooperation contract between MBG catering provider Ira Mesra Destiawati (59) and the MBN Foundation, each MBG portion was priced at Rp 15,000. However, over time, the foundation unilaterally reduced the price of one MBG portion to Rp 13,000.

The price of one portion of MBG, which no longer aligns with the contract value, was still deducted by the MBN Foundation by Rp 2,500 per portion. This means that for each portion of MBG, the catering service provider only receives Rp 10,500 per portion.

"After this incident, our client also found out that the National Nutrition Agency (BGN) had paid the MBN Foundation Rp386.5 million. When Mrs. Ira wanted to claim her rights, the foundation said that Mrs. Ira was short of paying Rp45,314,249 on the pretext that there were invoices in the field that were purchased by SPPG (Nutrition Fulfillment Service Unit) or the foundation," said Danna.

According to Danna, all operational funds for MBG—ranging from food supplies, venue rental, vehicles, electricity, kitchen equipment, to cooks—came from her client's personal funds. This means that during the process of providing MBG, the foundation is said to have not paid a single penny to Ira.

That is also what caused the MBG kitchen in Kalibata to not operate since around mid-March 2025. When Kompas visited the kitchen on Tuesday afternoon, there was no cooking activity. The kitchen was empty and there was no employee activity.

"Therefore, against the actions of the foundation that did not pay a single penny of our client's rights, Hary Law will take legal steps, both civil lawsuits and police reports. We hope this can open the eyes of the government and the public that MBG is a very good program. However, during the implementation, many things were not appropriate and were very vulnerable to being manipulated by certain individuals," said Danna.

Ira's legal team has reported the matter to the South Jakarta Metro Police as of April 10, 2025. In the attachment, it is stated that the reported party is suspected of having committed a criminal act of fraud or embezzlement.

Danna hopes that the government will periodically evaluate the MBG program so that incidents like this do not happen again. In addition, the government is asked to immediately open a complaint place for the MBG Program because it is believed that there are other victims like Mrs. Ira.

When confirmed, Tuesday night, the person in charge of the MBN Foundation, Yunita, denied that Ira was not paid. Yunita claimed to have paid her obligations to Ira. She claimed to have evidence and witnesses related to the payment.

"Many have contacted me today. Ask again, where is the evidence from him that he has not been paid. We have complete evidence, and we have many witnesses," answered Yunita, Tuesday night.

Meanwhile, according to Ira, she is a kitchen partner of the MBN Foundation. Ira has not hesitated from the beginning to be involved in making President Prabowo Subianto's program a success, namely the MBG Program.

"I thought, even though the trip would be impossible for the government to provide something that would be a problem like this. Since the first day of implementation, I have talked a lot with SPPG because I was appointed by SPPG as the head of the kitchen. At first, I didn't know how far the head of the kitchen was responsible," said Ira.

Although she did not understand much about the MBG Program, Ira chose to continue her responsibility of cooking and providing MBG. Ira was responsible for holding MBG in 19 schools.

The process of procuring food for MBG was done by converting her restaurant into an MBG kitchen. Ira also prepared ingredients for MBG with her own money.

"In my opinion, SPPG is also not cooperative. It's just WA and WA chat but no briefing, no direction, no information that I have to sign when the free nutritious food has arrived at the school," said Ira.

One form of SPPG's uncooperativeness, said Ira, is that there is no serious response from the party in resolving financial administration matters. As a result, Ira does not understand the administrative obligations that she must fulfill so that her rights can be paid by SPPG.

"So, between the foundation and SPPG, they themselves regulate the accountability of all documents. I am required to send invoices but the invoices are always wrong. So, what is the right one, I don't know," he said.

The implementation of MBG, which is touted as the mainstay of President Prabowo's government, has recently received a lot of attention. Starting from complaints about the minimalist menu offerings, to reports that there was raw meat in the MBG program food box in Sumba, East Nusa Tenggara (Kompas.id, 2/25/2025).

In a Q&A with a number of editors-in-chief of mass media, President Prabowo Subianto estimated that MBG beneficiaries could reach 100 percent in October or November, from a target of 82.9 million recipients. The program has now reached more than 3 million beneficiaries.

However, President Prabowo did not deny that there was still cheating by a number of parties. "And, we have caught several incidents, yes, it's natural, right? Those who work in the kitchen, were caught bringing it wrapped up," he said in a session called "President Prabowo Answers" (Kompas.id, 8/4/2025).

Previously, the Kompas daily's Data Journalism team analyzed and recommended that the MBG program be focused on 11.3 million school children, toddlers, pregnant women, and breastfeeding mothers from poor communities. The food price allocation could also be higher, namely IDR 21,545 per portion, above the government's benchmark of IDR 10,000 per portion (Kompas, 6/1/2025).