'Serious mistakes' seen in audit report<\/p>\n
JAKARTA (JP): Chief of the Supreme Audit Agency (BPK) Satrio
\nB. Yudono said on Tuesday that there were \"many serious mistakes\"
\nin the PricewaterhouseCoopers (PwC) audit report on the Bank Bali
\nscandal.<\/p>\n
He said many of the personal bank accounts audited by PwC had
\nturned out to have no connection at all with the Bank Bali
\naffair.<\/p>\n
\"The PwC audit has many serious mistakes, so it's not proper
\nfor BPK to make such a clamor about it,\" he said at a media
\nconference.<\/p>\n
\"But this doesn't mean that the credibility of PwC is
\nundermined.\"<\/p>\n
Yudono said that despite pressure from the International
\nMonetary Fund (IMF) and other multilateral creditors, one of the
\nreasons why his agency declined to disclose the complete PwC
\naudit report was to protect people who were mentioned but who
\nwere not guilty.<\/p>\n
He reiterated that the existing banking secrecy law and Law
\nNo. 5\/1973 on BPK prohibited the agency or PwC from disclosing
\nthe full audit report, except to the police and the attorney
\ngeneral.<\/p>\n
Yudono said violation of the BPK law could carry a six-year
\njail sentence.<\/p>\n
However, Ichsanuddin Noorsy, a member of the House Special
\nInvestigation Team on the Bank Bali Scandal, disputed Yudono's
\nargument, pointing out that both the Constitution and the central
\nbank law requires BPK to submit its audit report to the House of
\nRepresentatives.<\/p>\n
\"The PWC audit of Bank Indonesia was part of the BPK special
\naudit on the central bank which was made at the request of the
\nHouse,\" Noorsy said.<\/p>\n
He said Article 23 of the Constitution stipulates that BPK is
\nrequired to submit its audit report to the House. Article 59 of
\nthe central bank law stipulates that BPK can perform a special
\naudit on the central bank only at the request of the House.<\/p>\n
\"So BPK's refusal to fully disclose the PwC audit report is
\nonly a high-level conspiracy to protect influential people,\"
\nNoorsy added.<\/p>\n
PwC was assigned last month by BPK to audit the central bank
\nin relation to the Bank Bali scandal. The international auditor
\ncompleted its audit on Sept. 8, but at the request of the agency,
\na full report was only submitted to the police. The complete
\nversion contains the audited result of personal bank accounts in
\nwhich funds derived from the scandal were allegedly deposited.<\/p>\n
BPK distributed a condensed report of the PwC audit to
\ngovernment officials, legislators and journalists.<\/p>\n
But the IMF has insisted that the government disclose the
\ncomplete PwC audit report to the Independent Review Committee
\n(IRC), which provides advise to the government on the economic
\nreform program.<\/p>\n
\"The IMF has to play by our rules,\" Yudono said.<\/p>\n
He urged the IMF and the public to wait until a police
\ninvestigation had handed over its findings to the court.<\/p>\n
\"I've told the IMF to wait for the court process to be
\ncompleted.\"<\/p>\n
Yudono dismissed concerns that the police and the court system
\nwould fail to resolve the Bank Bali scandal satisfactorily.<\/p>\n
\"There's no reason for the police to deviate. All eyes are
\nclosely watching this case.\"<\/p>\n
He urged the government push the police and the court in order
\nto swiftly resolve the scandal.<\/p>\n
\"If this scandal is not resolved satisfactorily, the
\ngovernment will be doomed,\" Yudono said, pointing out that
\nconfidence in the country would plunge.<\/p>\n
The IMF, the World Bank and the Asian Development Bank have
\nsuspended aid disbursement to Indonesia until the government
\nresolves the scandal satisfactorily.<\/p>\n
The Bank Bali scandal stems from the questionable transfer in
\nearly June of Rp 546 billion (US$80 million at the June rate)
\nfrom the bank to PT Era Giat Prima (EGP) as a commission to help
\nthe bank recoup some Rp 904 billion in interbank loans on a
\nclosed-down bank.<\/p>\n
The bank should have not used the service of EGP because the
\ninterbank loans were guaranteed by the government.<\/p>\n
The Rp 546 billion commission was returned after the scandal
\nwas widely publicized in late July.<\/p>\n
There have been allegations, most of which were proven by the
\naudit, that the inner circle of President B.J. Habibie used EGP
\nto help raise money for political purposes ahead of the upcoming
\nNovember presidential election.<\/p>\n
One of the main purposes of the PwC audit was to trace the
\nflow of funds from EGP to specific bank accounts and the sources
\nof funds back to the escrow account at Bank Bali.<\/p>\n
PwC told the House at a recent hearing that \"PwC successfully
\ntraced up to 150 separate banking transactions involving large
\namounts of money being distributed over a short period of time.<\/p>\n
\"Our detailed report describes those transactions and
\nidentifies members of the House and senior public and political
\nparty officials who appear to have received funds. Given that
\nwe're not able to complete our fund tracing, we do not know if
\nthere are additional persons who received funds\".<\/p>\n
PwC said that due to time limitations and restrictions
\nenforced by the banking secrecy code, it was unable to audit the
\npersonal bank accounts of certain people. (rei\/vin)<\/p>",
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