ACT Case, Expert Pushes Revision of the 1961 Money or Goods Collection Law to Prevent Donation Misappropriation

JAKARTA - Constitutional law expert Bivitri Susanti encourages the government and the DPR to immediately revise Law (UU) Number 9 of 1961 concerning the Collection of Money or Goods to prevent fraud.

"Several friends and myself have pushed for changes to the Law on the Collection of Money or Goods", said Bivitri Susanti at a webinar entitled "Polemics on the Management of Philanthropic Funds" which was launched by ANTARA, Saturday, July 9.

Bivitri, who is one of the founders of the Center for Law and Policy Studies (PSHK) together with several parties, admitted that they had pushed for the revision of the law. Moreover, the Law on the Collection of Money or Goods has been around for a long time so it needs to be adjusted to current conditions.

However, she said, the impetus for the revision of the law was always hampered by the DPR for unclear political reasons.

"Hopefully this will be a good moment to revise the law", Bivitri hoped.

Not only the revision of the law, but Bivitri also assessed that the derivative rules of the law, namely Government Regulation (PP) No. 29/1980, must be updated. This encouragement is in line with the case of Aksi Cepat Tanggap (ACT), philanthropy that works in the social and humanitarian fields.

Bivitri compared the existence of the Law on the Collection of Money or Goods with Law No. 23 of 2011 on Zakat Management which can be said to be quite far behind.

"So the way of thinking about zakat management is more modern, neat, and more accountable", she said.

According to her, granting permits and registration to a party to manage funds for the public interest, such as philanthropy, is not enough just to grant permits. Far from that, supervision and accountability must be monitored so that there is no misappropriation of funds.

Meanwhile, the Law on the Collection of Money or Goods issued in 1961 did not address the accountability aspect, she said.

Therefore, Bivitri is of the view that revocation of the license for philanthropy as experienced by ACT because it is suspected of misappropriating funds will not solve the problem.

"So friends who are active in this sector feel sad. Because a drop of juice is damaged in a pot of milk", she said.

She advised the government not to simply revoke the license of a philanthropist. However, problem-solving must be carried out structurally and immediately revise the law.