Sticker sales need to be managed better, says YLKI

JAKARTA (JP): The Indonesian Consumers Agency (YLKI) urged the 19th Southeast Asian (SEA) Games consortium yesterday to improve the way it was selling stickers to raise money for the Games.

The agency's executive director, Zumrotin K. Susilo, said the public wanted a transparent report about the sticker sales and the selling of stickers to be controlled.

"Tell the public how many stickers have been sold and where they were sold," Zumrotin said.

People have complained that they have been forced to buy stickers when paying their electricity, telephone and water bills.

"The problem is that the public doesn't have a chance to refuse to pay," she said.

A ministerial decree, issued by the Minister of Social Services in March, said any money collected has to be given voluntarily.

The ministry has extended the consortium's permit so it can raise funds until October.

The consortium printed 17,750,000 stickers which are sold for between Rp 1,000 (US$0.41 cents) and Rp 50,000 each.

The stickers are sold to state-owned electricity company PLN customers who used more than 900 watts of electricity, state- owned water company PAM customers, state-owned telecommunications company Telkom customers, drivers or car owners renewing or applying for driver's licenses and vehicle registration documents.

The agency's chairwoman, Tini Hadad, said the agency suspected mismanagement was involved in the fund raising.

"Parents who want to get their children's school reports, bus and ferry customers also have to pay for the stickers. That's not right, it's against the regulation," Tini said.

"The council and the consortium have to control fund raising to avoid any possibility of mismanagement," she said.

PT Angkasa Rona Graha said it collected just Rp 2,923,100,000 in May but had contributed nearly Rp 10.8 billion to the consortium.

"It's very surprising that the company has only collected a very small amount even though the public feels they have paid a lot. Where does the money go? That's our question," Zumrotin said.

PT Angkasa Rona Graha director, Titus Soemadi, said the company had problems controlling the income from Telkom, PLN and PAM because they used a computerized billing system.

"Because of the computerized system, we haven't received the reports until today. Hopefully, by the end this month the reports will be ready," he said.

The consortium's promotion and business deputy, Enggartiasto Lukita, said although SEA Games souvenirs would go on sale next week, they would not contribute as much as stickers sales. (yan)