Accountants skeptical of Ghalib audit results

JAKARTA (JP): Senior accountants said on Thursday they doubted if the audit report on former attorney general Andi M. Ghalib's bank accounts set for release soon would satisfy the public.

State Comptroller Agency (BPKP) deputy chairman for corruption cases Soejatna Soenoesoebrata said he strongly believed the audit would not support the alleged corruption charges.

"Theoretically, the job is beyond any public accountant's ability. So don't expect too much from the audit report," he said at a discussion on the Ghalib inquiry held by the Indonesian Corruption Watch (ICW).

On June 14, President B.J. Habibie suspended Ghalib, who is also a lieutenant general, from his attorney general post. The suspension was sparked by ICW allegations that Ghalib had some Rp 13 billion (US$1.9 million) in his bank accounts, and that some of the money was suspected to be bribes from businessmen under investigation for banking law violations.

The government appointed public accountants Arthur Anderson Co. and Prasetio Utomo to audit Ghalib's bank accounts.

The accountants, however, were given the authority to audit only one of at least 16 bank accounts Ghalib holds in various banks.

Soejatna said the accountants had to have access to all of Ghalib's bank accounts to obtain an accurate picture for the investigation.

"They can't help the investigation on Ghalib at all. Legally, public accountants do not have any authority whatsoever to instruct banks to disclose their customers' accounts," he said.

He said if the audit results were made public by the government and did not accurately reflect their submission, the public accountants had to have enough courage to reject the report.

Ahmadi Hadibroto of the Association of Indonesian Accountants (IAI) shared Soetjatna's skepticism, saying the government's narrowly defined range of inquiry had limited the scope of the public accountants' work.

"It is therefore a big question if the auditor will be able to reveal the corruption charges," he said.

He said even if the public accountants had uncovered incidents of corruption, the government would not disclose the findings to the public.

"I suggest the public accountants disclose such information -- if any -- directly to the public, on the grounds that it is in line with the much greater interest of the general public, let alone the public accountant secrecy code."

He acknowledged that under public accountant codes of ethics, a public auditor is prohibited from disclosing findings to third parties without client approval, except in instances involving a breach of criminal law.

"In the Ghalib case, I think the public accountants can report to the public directly, because it could be categorized as a crime, and is also in line with the 1999 Anticorruption, Collusion and Nepotism Law." (udi)