Indonesia has vowed to overhaul the country’s ambitious free nutritious meals programme following public pressure and recent allegations of corruption – a move analysts described as a “moderate” concession in lieu of an “embarrassing” discontinuation of President Prabowo Subianto’s flagship initiative.

The US$15 billion initiative aims to reach 83 million schoolchildren, pregnant women, breastfeeding mothers, and toddlers to prevent malnutrition and stunted growth. However, it has been dogged by controversy since its launch in January last year, with critics pointing to weak oversight, limited budget transparency and insufficient food safety guidance.

Earlier this month, three former leaders of the National Nutrition Agency (BGN), which oversees the initiative, were arrested by the Attorney General’s Office for alleged mark-ups and corruption related to the development of operational kitchens.

Last week, Coordinating Minister for Food Affairs Zulkifli Hasan revealed that the number of kitchens had surged to 27,877 – more than the 21,000 planned initially.

“Our main focus is on underdeveloped, frontier and outermost regions. According to the data, there should be 2,000 service points in these regions, but this number has ballooned to 8,617,” Zulkifli told reporters on June 11.