Minister Teten Agrees On 2 Solutions For Troubled Cooperatives

Minister of Cooperatives and SMEs Teten Masduki. (Photo: Antara)

JAKARTA - Minister of Cooperatives and SMEs Teten Masduki agreed on short and long-term solutions in solving problems related to problematic cooperatives.

in a Limited Coordination Meeting (Rakortas) with the Coordinating Minister for Political, Legal and Security Affairs (Menkopolhukam) Mahfud MD.

This is because the implementation of the decision to postpone the obligation to pay debts (PKPU) by the court run by eight troubled cooperatives is considered very low.

"This clearly makes it difficult for members whose funds are held in the cooperative to be disbursed," said Teten in Jakarta, Thursday, in an official statement.

The short-term solution proposed is to encourage cooperatives to immediately hold an Annual Member Meeting (RAT) to decide on the next steps for the fulfillment of member rights.

RAT is carried out through the takeover of cooperatives by new management and their assets are taken over, including law enforcement by the Criminal Investigation Agency (Bareksrim) and the Prosecutor's Office against cooperatives that are indicated to have transferred assets and did not carry out the PKPU decision.

"What we are taking immediately is to encourage how the cooperative mechanism takes over the old management with new management and its assets are controlled by new management," said Teten.

For a long-term solution, it is necessary to change the rules or revision of the Cooperative Law related to the supervisory system for cooperatives to ensure the handling of problematic cooperatives is carried out in a comprehensive manner like banking.

In this way, the members or management of the cooperative are considered to be protected.

"When it comes to banks that fail to pay, they are already fully regulated. Now, there are no complete regulations in cooperatives," said Teten.

He ensured that his party and various relevant stakeholders fully support efforts to resolve cases involving problematic cooperatives in order to fulfill the rights of members.

"For this reason, through the Task Force (Satgas) for Handling Troubled Cooperatives that was formed, it is hoped that it can encourage cooperatives to immediately hold an annual member meeting (RAT), to decide on the next steps for fulfilling the rights of members," concluded Teten.