Legal Classification of Non-Donation CSR Funds in Village Financial Governance

Eldy Satria Noerdin (Universitas Dumoga Kotamobagu)
Amir Minabari (Universitas Dumoga Kotamobagu)
Alvin Evrialdo Noerdin (Universitas Dumoga Kotamobagu)

JURNAL USM LAW REVIEW
Vol. 9 No. 3 (2026): SEPTEMBER

This study examines the legal ambiguity surrounding the integration of non-donation Corporate Social Responsibility (CSR) funds into village financial governance in Indonesia, particularly regarding the uncertain boundary between private corporate assets and public finance. The research addresses whether CSR funds transferred into village accounts automatically acquire the status of state finance, thereby exposing village officials to administrative and criminal liability risks. Using a normative legal research method with statutory, doctrinal, and conceptual approaches, this study analyses regulations concerning CSR, village finance, state finance, and anti-corruption law, supported by doctrinal legal reasoning and expert consultations involving administrative law scholars, auditors, and corporate law practitioners. The findings demonstrate that non-donation CSR funds possess a hybrid legal character because they simultaneously embody private contractual ownership and public administrative oversight. Substantively, such funds remain corporate assets governed by the principle of pacta sunt servanda until contractual obligations are fulfilled and therefore cannot automatically be classified as state finance merely because they are deposited into village accounts. The study further reveals that the absence of specific regulatory differentiation has created legal uncertainty that conflates maladministration, breach of contract, and corruption offenses within village financial governance. Accordingly, this research proposes a regulatory reconstruction through adaptive mechanisms, including off-budget accounting, escrow arrangements, and designated forwarding accounts accompanied by explicit normative distinctions between administrative, civil, and criminal liability. The novelty of this study lies in conceptualising non-donation CSR funds as a hybrid cross-regime legal category, while its contribution resides in developing a doctrinal and regulatory framework that reconciles corporate contractual rights with public accountability principles in village financial governance.