Indonesian Halal Certification Assistants Report Unpaid Incentives to Ombudsman

JAKARTA, STUPA NEWS — A group of halal certification assistants in Indonesia has reported the country's halal product assurance agency to the national Ombudsman over months of unpaid incentives, adding to concerns about the administration of a government programme supporting micro and small businesses.

The assistants, known as Pendamping Proses Produk Halal (P3H), visited the Ombudsman office in Jakarta on Friday, Oct. 9, seeking intervention after repeated attempts to resolve the issue with the Halal Product Assurance Organising Agency (BPJPH) failed, one of the assistants said.

"We came to the Ombudsman to report this because we feel held hostage, as our incentive payments have been unpaid for months," said Siti, an assistant who spoke to reporters at the office.

She said the group had repeatedly sought guidance from BPJPH officials but had received no meaningful response.

According to Siti, BPJPH chief Ahmad Haikal Hasan, widely known as Babe Haikal, had been informed of the matter and had instructed officials to make the payments. However, she said, the instruction had not resulted in disbursements.

Reuters-style reporting could not independently verify the alleged payment instruction or establish the total amount of outstanding incentives.

Haikal was appointed to lead BPJPH by President Prabowo Subianto in October 2024. The agency oversees Indonesia's halal product assurance and certification system.

The dispute has also drawn attention to HalalMax, a digital platform developed by Indonesian technology company PT Indonesian Cloud in cooperation with BPJPH to support and accelerate halal certification.

Some allegations circulating around the dispute had linked the turmoil to new regulations and the platform's involvement. Representatives of PT Indonesian Cloud rejected the suggestion that the company was responsible for regulatory decisions.

"We are only a working partner. Regulations are entirely within BPJPH's authority," the company's chief executive said during a meeting with P3H representatives at Menara MTH in Jakarta on Friday, according to an account provided by the parties.

The company describes HalalMax as an end-to-end digital platform using artificial intelligence to facilitate halal certification.

Editorial records cited by the original report identify PT Indonesian Cloud as an official BPJPH partner under cooperation agreements numbered 51 of 2025 and 019/PKS/IC-BPJPH/VII/2025.

The partnership documents and the platform's role in the payment dispute could not be independently verified for this article.

Separately, the EWI Halal Product Process Assistance Institution's working team said it would hold an online meeting on Monday, Oct. 12, to discuss the unpaid incentives and determine possible legal steps.

In an invitation circulated ahead of the meeting, the team alleged that administrative failures at BPJPH had prevented the payment of incentives to EWI-affiliated assistants. It said the meeting would present evidence and discuss measures to secure payment of what it described as the assistants' constitutional rights.

The allegations have not been independently substantiated.

The original news outlet, Suara Negeri, said it had attempted to contact Haikal for comment but had not reached him by the time its report was published.

BPJPH's response to the allegations was not available in the original report.

The amount of unpaid incentives, the number of assistants affected and the timeline for resolving the dispute remain unclear. (R-01)