Menkop Pastikan Sudah Rumuskan Sejumlah Mitigasi Risiko Pembentukan Koperasi Merah Putih

The Ministry of Cooperatives (Kemenkop) emphasized that it has formulated various risk mitigation strategies from several challenges in the formation of the Merah Putih Village/kelurahan Cooperative (Kopdes/Kel).

This risk mitigation is needed as an early step to minimize the failure rate or fraud of the management and operation of the Red and White Kopdes/Kel when it is running.

The Minister of Cooperatives (Menkop) Budi Arie Setiadi realized that in the process of forming Kopdes/Kel Merah Putih, he faced eight main challenges. So that a clear and firm strategy and roadmap is needed to answer the challenge (risk mitigation) so that it is hoped that the operations of the Kopdes/Kel Merah Putih will run well.

"We are accelerating the construction of the Kopdes/Kel Merah Putih, but for operations we must be careful and not eliminate prudent aspects, including preparing risk mitigation," said Budi Arie, quoted on Thursday, May 15.

The eight main challenges that are the focus of the Ministry of Cooperatives to handle are first, the low participation of the community and collective awareness of the importance of cooperatives.

This is shown from the percentage of Indonesians who are members of cooperatives who are still low.

The second challenge is the perception/image of the public's negative towards cooperatives because of cases of problematic cooperatives and illegal online loans under the guise of cooperatives.

Third, cooperatives are still considered less adaptive to technological advances.

Fourth, is the economic scale and potential in each village are different and challenging, and the five human resources (human resources) capacity and competence in each village are different.

"Our toughest challenge is the low level of human resources, so there are many violations - violations in cooperatives because there are no credible cooperative managers and their knowledge is still limited," continued Budi Arie.

The sixth challenge is the possibility of an elite capture in the formation and management of the Red and White Kopdes/Kel.

Seventh, namely the possibility of fraud in unprofessional management.

The eighth challenge is from the potential aspects of the sustainability of institutions and cooperative businesses in the future.

In general, the Ministry of Cooperatives will carry out moderate risk mitigation to answer all these challenges by optimizing the use of technology in the context of monitoring and evaluating the Red and White Kopdes/Kel after operating.

"We will use the (technology) system to mitigate the risk of loss or fraud from the Red and White Kopdes/Kel. I am optimistic that the system strengthened by fraud problems can be overcome so that the improvement of human resources, cooperative management and institutional systems is very important to pay attention to," explained Budi Arie.

Meanwhile, Deputy Minister of Cooperatives (Wamenkop) Ferry Juliantono added that one of the most highlighted by the public regarding the Red and White Kopdes/Kel is the overlap with Village-Owned Enterprises (Bumdes).

Responding to this, the Deputy Minister of Cooperatives ensured that the existence of the Red and White Kopdes/Kel would not turn off the BumDes.

In fact, BumDes will be further strengthened by the Kopdes because it will be a working partner in building the village economy.

"We have mitigated and have a lot of potential risks, especially in terms of distribution of working capital. This is a mechanism that will be followed by the Red and White Kopdes/Kel and the Ministry of Cooperatives will also assist them in carrying out their operational activities," said Ferry.

Through strengthening human resources, institutions and systems, Ferry believes that the Red and White Kopdes/Kel will have a positive impact on improving the welfare of the village community.

On the other hand, Kopdes/Kel will also cut the role of tengkulak/middleman, online loans and moneylenders so that the profits of the Kopdes/Kel Merah Putih can be optimized to improve the economy of its members.

"We have an agreement with various parties, including the Attorney General's Office, to protect from the beginning the potential for fraud or miss management. Based on the Fisibility Study, Kopdes/Kel tends to be profitable," said Ferry.