JAKARTA, July 22 (Reuters) – The chief of the Indonesian agency overseeing President Prabowo Subianto’s flagship free meals programme said on Wednesday she had resigned, citing health reasons, the second leadership change at the beleaguered government body in just over a month.
The resignation of Nanik Sudaryati Deyang, who took over the National Nutrition Agency in June, comes after budget cuts and a criminal investigation into the free meals scheme, which has been dogged by logistical challenges, concerns about quality and several instances of mass food poisoning following its launch in January 2025.
Nanik’s predecessor was sacked by Prabowo last month and arrested on corruption charges in connection with the multibillion-dollar programme after a raid at the agency’s office.
In a Facebook post, Nanik said she has resigned to seek treatment overseas for a heart complaint.
“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, adding in a separate post that her doctor warned that her arteries were clogged due to extreme stress.
She said Prabowo was looking into forming a supervisory board for the agency and that she has been asked to lead it.
The programme is Prabowo’s most important and expensive election campaign pledge, but it has been a key issue in wider concerns about Indonesia’s fiscal health.
Nanik said in the post that the programme was not a political issue, as some have accused it of being, but was “an intervention measure for children’s nutrition.”
Sudaryono, Indonesia’s deputy agriculture minister and a member of Prabowo’s political party Gerindra, will be formally appointed later on Wednesday as Nanik’s successor, palace spokesperson Prasetyo Hadi said.
Nanik’s resignation came a day after the agency said that its budget for 2026 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 lower than the initial allocation of 335 trillion rupiah.
The programme originally aimed to cover 83 million people, consisting of children and pregnant women. Before the review, it had already delivered free meals to 62.5 million people, the agency said.
More budget cuts are possible, it added, pending a further review.
($1 = 17,903 rupiah)
(Reporting by Stanley Widianto and Ananda Teresia; Editing by David Stanway)
