$320m raised for poverty alleviation
$320m raised for poverty alleviation
JAKARTA (JP): A poverty alleviation foundation, chaired by
President Soeharto, has collected more than Rp 768.6 billion
(US$320.25 million), including Rp 622 billion in taxpayers'
donations, in its first year of operation.
An auditor's report released yesterday says that by March 31
the Yayasan Dana Sejahtera Mandiri foundation had collected Rp
572.7 billion in donations from 7,151 companies and Rp 49.4
billion from 6,642 individual donors.
The state secretariat has provided an interest free Rp 100
billion loan to the foundation.
"The foundation has lent more than Rp 119 billion to six
million families who each received Rp 20,000," State Minister of
Population Haryono Suyono said yesterday after the foundation's
first annual meeting at Soeharto's residence on Jalan Cendana.
He said the foundation had also lent Rp 120 billion to three
million families which received Rp 40,000 each.
President Soeharto set up the foundation in a private capacity
in January 1996 to help 22 million people living below the
poverty line. Tycoon Soedono Salim (Liem Sioe Liong) and
businessmen Sudwikatmono and Haryono helped set up the
foundation, on which they serve as Soeharto's deputies.
Minister of Cooperatives Subijakto Tjakrawerdaya and
Soeharto's son Bambang Trihatmodjo are secretary and treasurer of
the foundation, which gets its funding from donations based on
Presidential Decree No. 90/1995.
The decree urges individuals and companies with after-tax
incomes or profits of more than Rp 100 billion a year to donate
up to 2 percent of their income to the program.
In this year's first cabinet meeting on poverty alleviation in
April, Soeharto said the government's integrated poverty programs
had reduced the number of people living below poverty line from
25.9 million in 1995 to 22.5 million in 1996.
President Soeharto expressed his gratitude to taxpayers, and
promised to personally write a letter of appreciation to every
taxpayer who had donated more than Rp 1 billion.
"With these funds, we are optimistic that we can eradicate
poverty before the end of the Seventh Five-Year Development
Program in 2004," Subijakto quoted Soeharto as saying.
Soeharto also assured donors that their donations were being
used responsibly to improve people's welfare. The auditor's
report will be published soon in local newspapers so that donors
can find out how their money was managed.
"They can check it directly with the treasurer (Bambang) if
they still don't believe the report," Subiakto quoted Soeharto as
saying.
Yesterday's meeting was attended by three of the foundation's
board members and 12 executives including Soedono Salim and his
son Anthony Salim, Soeharto's son Bambang Trihatmodjo, tycoons
Prayogo Pangestu and Muhammad (Bob) Hasan, banker Usman
Admadjaja, Sudwikatmono, and five cabinet ministers. (06)