13.7% Donation Cut Act: Who Are the Donors?

The Ministry of Social Affairs (Kemensos) has revoked the permit for the collection of money and goods (PUB) belonging to the Aksi Cepat Tanggap (ACT) Foundation. This revocation is stated in Kemensos Decree No. 133/HUK/2022 dated July 5, 2022.

"The reason we revoked it is because there are indications of violations of the Minister of Social Affairs Regulation. We will wait for the results of the investigation from the Inspectorate General before further sanctions are determined," said Acting Minister of Social Affairs Muhadjir Effendi in a press release on Wednesday (6/7/2022).

Muhadjir explained that the revocation of the permit was carried out because ACT deducted a larger percentage of donation funds than permitted.

Based on Article 6 paragraph (1) of Government Regulation No. 29 of 1980, the financing of donation collection efforts may only take a maximum of 10% of the results of the relevant donation collection.

However, based on clarifications, ACT President Ibnu Khajar stated that his institution took an average of 13.7% of the donation funds for the foundation's operational costs.

In its annual report, ACT stated that it had collected donations totaling Rp519.35 billion in 2020. These donations came from 348,300 donors.

The majority, or 60.1%, of ACT donors in that year were reported to be from the public. Then 16.7% from corporations, 11.2% from online channels, and 6% from institutions/foundations.

There were also donors from communities (3.5%), the government (1%), mosques (0.8%), and others (0.7%).

ACT came under scrutiny after a report in *Majalah Tempo* magazine, July 2, 2022 edition, titled "Leaky Pockets of the People's Funds." This report stated that ACT leaders allegedly used the institution's funds for personal use. ACT leaders were also said to receive salaries of Rp250 million along with luxury facilities.

However, the President of Aksi Cepat Tanggap (ACT), Ibnu Khajar, denied the claim that the foundation he heads pays its leaders up to Rp250 million.

"The circulating data is not permanently valid. We cannot actually explain the source of the data," said Ibnu, as quoted by *Katadata.co.id*, Monday (4/7/2022).

For the presidium leadership level at ACT, Ibnu explained that the salary received is no more than Rp100 million. This amount, he said, is reasonable given the heavy task of managing 1,200 employees.

Ibnu also stated that this salary comes from a deduction of funds collected by ACT, amounting to 13.7%. The deduction is taken from general infaq funds, corporate social responsibility (CSR), and grant funds.

(See Also: ACT Manages Hundreds of Billions of Rupiah in Donations per Year Since 2016)