THE EFFECTIVENESS OF USING VILLAGE FUNDS FOR VARIOUS RELIGIOUS ACTIVITIES IN BANDA ACEH CITY

Village funds are budgeted to finance village development in accordance with the use priorities determined through government policies. One of the derivative activities from the field of empowerment, village funds can be used to finance various religious activities at the village level. This is as stated in the Ministry of Village Regulation (Permendesa) concerning the priority of using village funds which is determined every fiscal year. For example, in the 2019 fiscal year, the priority of using village funds is regulated through Permendesa Number 16 of 2018. Several activities contained in the regulation are a measure of effectiveness in the use of village funds. This paper will describe the effectiveness of using village funds for multi-religious activities in Banda Aceh City using a descriptive method. This paper is presented based on primary and secondary data obtained from the results of field research using interview, observation, and document analysis techniques for the use of village funds from the 2016 to 2020 fiscal year. The results show that the use of village funds for religious activities is minimal, because it is limited by regulation at the city level. For Muslims, village funds are used for TPA activities and religious understanding training activities. As for non-Islamic religious activities, the use of village funds was not found.