JAKARTA: The head of the Indonesian agency overseeing President Prabowo Subianto’s flagship free meals programme said on Wednesday that she had resigned for health reasons, marking the second leadership change at the beleaguered government body in just over a month.
Nanik Sudaryati Deyang, who took over the National Nutrition Agency in June, resigned amid budget cuts and a criminal investigation into the free meals programme, which has faced logistical challenges, quality concerns and several incidents of mass food poisoning since its launch in January 2025.
Nanik’s predecessor was dismissed by Prabowo last month and arrested on corruption charges in connection with the multibillion-dollar programme following a raid at the agency’s offices.
In a Facebook post, Nanik said she had resigned to seek treatment overseas for a heart condition.
“With a thousand apologies, I must resign as NNA chief for my health, and because the president feels sorry for me, he agreed,” she said.
In a separate post, she said her doctor had warned that her arteries were clogged because of extreme stress.
Nanik said Prabowo was considering the formation of a supervisory board for the agency and that she had been asked to lead it.
The programme is Prabowo’s most important and expensive election campaign pledge, but it has also become a focus of broader concerns about Indonesia’s fiscal health.
Nanik said the programme was not a political issue, as some have accused it of being, but “an intervention measure for children’s nutrition”.
It was not immediately clear who would replace her, although Nanik said her successor was her junior at the agency.
The National Nutrition Agency did not immediately respond to a request for comment.
Her resignation came a day after the agency said its 2026 budget had been cut for a second time, from 268 trillion rupiah to 229 trillion rupiah ($12.79 billion).
The budget is now more than 100 trillion rupiah below the initial allocation of 335 trillion rupiah.
The programme originally aimed to provide free meals to 83 million people, including children and pregnant women.
Before the latest review, the agency said it had already delivered free meals to 62.5 million people.
Further budget cuts remain possible, the agency said, pending another review. - Reuters
