National Nutrition Agency Claims to Have Settled Free Meal's Kitchen Partner Payment Dispute

TEMPO.CO, Jakarta - The Head of the National Nutrition Agency (BGN) Dadan Hindayana stated that they are currently mediating the payment dispute between the kitchen partner of the Free Nutritious Meal (MBG) program at the Kalibata Nutrition Fulfillment Service Unit (SPPG) in South Jakarta and the MBN foundation.

He mentioned that the mediation has been ongoing since yesterday. "The foundation (MBN) and the Head of SPPG (Ira Mesra Destiawati) have been at BGN since this morning. The infrastructure owner (complainant) will only attend in the afternoon," Dadan said when confirmed on Wednesday, April 16, 2025.

Dadan revealed the dispute over the MBG program's kitchen partner payment at SPPG Kalibata as an internal issue with the partner. He claimed that BGN's obligation in the payment had actually been settled.

He refused to explain whether SPPG Kalibata will continue to operate after the case. He only stated that BGN will await the resolution of the payment issue first. "Meanwhile, we will first resolve the issues between them while BGN takes other steps," said the Professor at the Bogor Agricultural University (IPB) University.

Ira's lawyer, Danna Harly Putra, stated that they will attend the mediation on Wednesday afternoon, April 16, 2025. "At 14.00, we will be at BGN," said Harly when confirmed.

Harly mentioned that his client last cooked the MBG menu before the 2025 Eid break. He said his client was supposed to provide nutritious food at the third stage, last Monday, but had to stop operating due to inadequate funding.

Previously, at a press conference in Jakarta, on Tuesday, April 15, 2025, Harly stated that they would pursue legal action after his client suffered losses of Rp 975,375,000 or almost Rp 1 billion. Harly explained that his client suffered these losses because they had not received any payment since the kitchen started operating last February.

He stated that the legal steps to be taken are to file a civil lawsuit and make a report to the Indonesian National Police (Polri). He also hoped for periodic evaluations of President Prabowo Subianto's flagship program. "So that incidents like this will not happen again, and also we hope, please launch a complaint center for the MBG program," said Harly.

Harly detailed the losses of almost Rp 1 billion based on the calculation of the number of portions cooked by his client, which is 65,025 portions. He continued that all MBG portions were prepared in two stages.

In addition, he explained that since the beginning, his client was not aware of the price difference per portion of MBG prepared for each level of early childhood education (PAUD), kindergarten (TK), and primary school (SD). Specifically, for PAUD, TK, and SD grade 1-3 students, they were allocated Rp 13,000 per portion.

Furthermore, students in grades 4-6 received government-funded MBG at Rp 15,000 per portion. Meanwhile, in the signed agreement, his client was given the impression that the cost per portion for all education levels is the same, which is Rp 15,000.

Harly mentioned that his client only learned about the price difference per portion after the kitchen had started operating. As a result, his client had already provided Free Nutritious Meals for PAUD, TK, and SD grade 1-3 students with portions and quality equivalent to Rp 15,000. He also revealed that from the Rp 15,000 price, they still received a discount of Rp 2,500 per portion.

In addition to food, Harly mentioned that his client also bore all the operational costs of the kitchen, from purchasing foodstuffs, electricity, rent, kitchen equipment, vehicles, to paying the cooks. However, to this day, Ira has not received any payment from the MBN foundation. "Ibu Ira funded it all," said Harly.

Eka Yudha Saputra and M.Rizki Yusrial contributed to the writing of this article.

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