Accountants skeptical of Ghalib audit results
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)