Cut Donations By 20 Percent, DPR: ACT Violates Applicable Rules

Ace Hasan/Photo: Antara

JAKARTA - Commission VIII of the DPR RI highlighted the findings of the National Police which stated that the Aksi Cepat Tanggap (ACT) Foundation collects donations of Rp60 billion every month and cuts 20 percent of employee salaries. The council considered that ACT's actions violated the rules. Deputy Chairman of Commission VIII of the DPR, Ace Hasan Syadzily, explained that the issue of withholding funds had been stated in Government Regulation number 29 of 1980. In the PP, donations could not be deducted more than 10 percent.

"Actually, according to regulations as stipulated in Government Regulation No. 29 of 1980 concerning the Implementation of Donation Collection, it is stated that the operational costs of collecting donations cannot be more than 10 percent," said Ace to reporters, Monday, July 11. Therefore, Ace stated that ACT had violated the rules if it cut donations by 20 percent. "If ACT immediately cuts public donations by 20 percent, then what it is doing is clearly against the applicable regulations," said Ace.

He reminded that the regulation was made to prevent misappropriation of funds by philanthropic institutions or fundraisers. "The above regulations are clearly an effort so that the funds collected from the public should not be used for the personal interests of these institutions," he said.

The chairman of the Golkar DPP appealed to other philanthropic institutions to follow the existing rules. Ace hopes that the fundraising is not done for personal gain.

"Don't make a philanthropic institution for the sake of seeking personal gain. A philanthropic institution whose main goal is to become an institution that helps overcome social problems faced by the community. It should not be used as a field for earning a living and personal gain," concluded Ace. Previously, the National Police's Criminal Investigation Agency (Bareskrim) suspected that the philanthropic organization Aksi Cepat Tanggap (ACT) cut 10 to 20 percent of the social funds or CSR it manages to pay employees.

The Head of the Public Information Bureau (Karo Penmas) of the National Police Public Relations Division, Brigadier General Ahmad Ramadhan, revealed that around Rp. 60 billion of CSR donations are collected every month. .000,000-Rp 12,000,000,000) for the purposes of paying the salaries of the management and all employees," Ramadhan said in a written statement, Saturday, July 9. Apart from employees, said Ramadhan, ACT supervisors and supervisors also received operational funds from the donation cut.