AGO faulted over recovery of graft funds

AGO faulted over recovery of graft funds

Tony Hotland, The Jakarta Post, Jakarta

Legislators and activists lashed out at the Attorney General's
Office (AGO) for not being serious in its efforts to recover over
Rp 6.66 trillion (some US$660 million) in fines and restitution
monies from those convicted of corruption.

A report by the State Audit Agency (BPK) earlier revealed that
the prosecution service had failed to recover Rp 6.66 trillion in
fines and restitution that the courts had ordered convicted
corruptors to pay.

The annual report was presented to the House of
Representatives on Tuesday.

In response, the Attorney General's Office argued that its
failure was due to difficulties in tracing the assets of
convicted persons, or their heirs, in cases where they had
already been transferred to third parties.

Other problems included the fact that some of those convicted
corruptors were still at large, while others claimed to be unable
to pay the money by producing "lack of adequate means"
certificates, the prosecution service said.

The AGO, however, vowed to work harder to enforce the court
orders against all those concerned.

Legislator Azlaini Agus from House's law and human rights
commission said the AGO was not resolute enough in seizing the
assets of convicted persons.

"From the very beginning of a corruption trial, the
prosecutors know all about the assets of a defendant. These
should be frozen immediately so that it will not be transferred
somewhere else or assigned to someone else," she said.

Azlaini said she found it difficult to believe that some of
the corruptors could not pay the fines and restitution orders
imposed on them by the courts.

"That's nonsense. It's impossible that they spent billions of
rupiah in embezzled funds. They must have invested in many
business endeavors, which the AGO must trace and freeze," said
the National Awakening Party (PKB) lawmaker.

Fellow commission member, Gayus Lumbuun, from the Indonesian
Democratic Party of Struggle (PDI-P), said the AGO should write to
the Supreme Court, asking it to automatically increase the prison
terms of convicted persons who failed to return their ill-gotten
gains to the state.

"In each case, there's a clause that if a corruptor cannot pay
restitution as the court orders, his or her prison term will be
increased by a few months or years," he argued.

Gayus said he was suspicious that the AGO was keeping the
money for itself.

"If what they say is really the case, the AGO must come clean
with the BPK, and attach certificates from the Supreme Court
stating that it cannot get the money owed in these cases, for
example, so that we know AGO is not faking anything," said Gayus.

Echoing the legislators' criticism, Indonesia Corruption Watch
(ICW) deputy chief Luki Djani said the prosecution service should
cooperate more effectively with other relevant institutions, such
as the Financial Transaction Analysis Center and the National
Land Agency, in its attempts to trace assets.

"The AGO must then act strictly and resolutely in freezing
these assets. In other countries, prosecutors would just throw
the person out of his house and seized it," he said.