Call The Authority Of The Weak Cooperative Law, MenKopUKM Cooperatives PPATK Over The Money Laundering Case

Minister of Cooperatives and SMEs (MenKopUKM) Teten Masduki. (Dok Kemenkop UKM)

JAKARTA - The Ministry of Cooperatives and Small and Medium Enterprises (KemenKopUKM) and the Financial Transaction Reports and Analysis Center (PPATK) strengthen synergies to handle money laundering cases at savings and loan cooperatives.

"As a regulation, we already have a Permenkop that stipulates that cooperatives suspect that illegal funds must be reported to PPATK. But it turns out that something has not been reported, this is what we are fixing," said Minister of Cooperatives and SMEs (MenKopUKM) Teten Masduki in Jakarta, Wednesday, February 15, was confiscated by Antara.

MenKopUKM Teten said Law Number 25 of 1992 concerning Cooperation only allows internal supervision by supervisors appointed by the cooperative itself. As a result, KemenKopUKM does not have access to deeper check down to potential embezzlement of assets and shadow banking.

In fact, if the Ministry of Cooperatives sniffs out fraud and wants to summon the cooperative management, the Ministry of Cooperatives cannot move if the cooperative management does not comply with the summons due to the weak authority of the cooperative law.

"Therefore, I agree with PPATK for us to cooperate to carry out internal supervision. We will first focus on large savings and loan cooperatives (KSP) that have potential. PPATK already has a note, we will focus on audit checks from PPATK records," he said.

PPATK chairman Ivan Yustiavandana said PPATK had submitted a number of data related to alleged money laundering practices at 12 KSP and submitted several cases that needed further follow-up.

He emphasized that cooperatives must grow strong and great and be able to grow the people's economy. However, cooperatives must be accountable, obey applicable rules and try to prevent and eradicate money laundering.

"The point is we want to support what the Ministry of Cooperatives and SMEs can do and the rest we will criticize this collaboration," said Ivan.

In addition to strengthening synergies with PPATK, previously Minister Teten had proposed a revision of the Cooperative Law so that the authority to supervise cooperatives could be wider. The revision submission has been approved by members of the DPR RI and is targeted to be ratified by the middle of this year.

In addition, PPATK found allegations of money laundering (TPPU) practices of IDR 500 trillion during the 2020-2022 period at 12 KSP. The customer funds are used by cooperatives to transact to affiliated companies to buy jets, yachts, and beauty costs such as plastic surgery.