TEMPO.CO, Jakarta - The procurement of shoes and socks in the People's School program of the Indonesian Ministry of Social Affairs raises several issues, ranging from the procurement scheme to discrepancies in data and officials' statements. Here are five important facts that need to be known about the issue:
Initial Shoe Purchases Handed Over to Schools
Minister of Social Affairs Saifullah Yusuf or Gus Ipul stated that the procurement of shoes in the initial stage was not done centrally. Budgets were provided to each school, and purchases were made independently in the market.
This scheme was chosen because of urgent needs before the start of the school year and the Introduction to the Learning Environment (MPLS). In that situation, the government only provided general guidance, while the transaction process was carried out directly by the schools with receipts. "The budget was given to the schools, and the schools made their own purchases," said Gus Ipul when met at his office on Tuesday, May 5, 2026.
Loose Specifications, Non-Uniform Prices
The ministry only set a maximum price limit of around Rp 450,000 per pair and simple specifications such as black color and certain materials. There were no detailed technical standards binding between regions.
As a result, the prices of shoes varied in each school. With 166 schools involved, price variations were unavoidable due to following the local market conditions in each region.
Gus Ipul admitted that this model made procurement data inconsistent and needed to be organized for easier public understanding. He even asked his staff to reorganize the data to avoid confusion. "So that the public can easily understand. This (the socks) is called include, but there's another budgeting, so it's confusing," he said.
Centralized Procurement Emerges in the Subsequent Stage
After the initial stage, the Ministry of Social Affairs again used a centralized procurement scheme through the General Bureau. This model was used especially for the next wave of students in the program, which ran in stages 1A (July 2025), 1B (August 2025), 1C (September-October 2025).
In addition, procurement data in INAPROC indicated that the budget value reached tens of billions of rupiah for a single type of shoe. However, because there were several types of shoes given to the students, the overall budget allocation has not yet been detailed to the public.
Double Socks Procurement
Gus Ipul had initially stated that socks were already included in the shoe package. However, after Tempo found data on the government's official procurement site, it turned out that there was another procurement of socks outside the package that already included the procurement of shoes.
He later acknowledged the procurement of these socks. Gus Ipul said he had just found out that the separate procurement was carried out by the Ministry of Social Affairs' General Bureau, which was then distributed to the students.
An investigation of the procurement data showed that the purchase of socks was done in several different packages with a total value of around Rp2.7 billion. This shows that socks were not part of the same package as the shoes from the outset.
Criticism of Transparency and Confusion in the Scheme
Transparency International Indonesia researcher Agus Sarwono considered the government's explanation confusing technically. He highlighted the disparity between centrally procured procurement data and the purchasing practices reported to have been carried out by the schools.
According to him, this disparity in narratives is not just a miscommunication but has the potential to mislead the public and conceal governance issues. Agus also questioned the mechanisms of oversight if purchases were made scattered across schools.
Read: TII Questions Rp2.72bn Sock Procurement in People's School Program
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