Corruption cases up, recovery process slow<\/p>\n
JAKARTA (JP): The government has so far recovered only Rp 33
\nbillion (about US$15 million) of an estimated Rp 1.1 trillion in
\nstate money embezzled during the 1994\/1995 fiscal year, a senior
\nofficial revealed yesterday.<\/p>\n
The figure of Rp 1.1 trillion has emerged from the
\ninvestigation of 212 of the 358 corruption cases uncovered by the
\nAttorney General's Office to date, Deputy Attorney General for
\nSpecial Crimes A. Soetomo said.<\/p>\n
The huge loss of the government money was revealed in a
\nmeeting attended by the Attorney General and inspector generals
\nand supervisory officials from several government agencies.<\/p>\n
Soetomo told reporters that the meeting discussed better
\ncoordination between the Attorney General's Office and other
\ngovernment agencies for the purpose of safeguarding development
\nfunds and obtaining accurate data on corruption.<\/p>\n
He said that most corruption cases had occurred in the
\nMinistry of Home Affairs, with 106 cases, followed by the
\nMinistry of Cooperatives and Small Enterprises, with 62 cases,
\nclosely followed by Bank Indonesia (the Central Bank), with 59
\ncases.<\/p>\n
Soetomo declined to reveal how much the money had been
\nembezzled in each of the government institutions.<\/p>\n
He said that, of the 358 corruption cases, 280 cases had been
\nreported by the Attorney General's Office, 17 by letter to the
\nVice President's Post Box 5000, 18 by the State Audit Agency and
\n27 by inspectorate generals of various ministries.<\/p>\n
The number of corruption cases uncovered this year was higher
\nthan both last year's 315 cases and the 293 cases uncovered in
\n1992\/1993, he said.<\/p>\n
Attorney General Singgih told the meeting that most of the
\ncorruption cases currently under investigation had occurred in
\nthe taxation and state banking sectors as well as in the land
\nacquisition sector.<\/p>\n
He said corruption in the tax sector involved administrative
\nmanipulation in which officials abuse their positions.<\/p>\n
He said a common case was that in which exporters were able to
\nfalsify documents because of slack supervision on the part of
\nofficials.<\/p>\n
He said cases of \"fictitious\" tax refunds became more
\ncomplicated where there had been collusion between exporters and
\ntax officials.<\/p>\n
In the state banking sector, corruption commonly occurs when
\nbank officials abuse their authority, he said.<\/p>\n
He said that some exporters manipulated credit application
\nprocedures with the help of state bank officials, who failed to
\nthoroughly check and evaluate the application forms.<\/p>\n
Corruption in state banking circles was also facilitated by
\nslack internal controls on the credit approval and disbursement
\nsections, he said.<\/p>\n
Singgih specifically referred to the Golden Key Group case, in
\nwhich businessman Eddy Tansil managed to obtain a loan of Rp 1
\ntrillion from the state-owned Bank Pembangunan Indonesia
\n(Bapindo) without proper documents or guarantees.<\/p>\n
In land procurement, Singgih said, corrupt individuals inflate
\nthe prices of land earmarked for development projects. (imn)<\/p>",
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