BPK leader to help clarify alleged govt funds misuse
Tony Hotland, The Jakarta Post, Jakarta
Head of the Supreme Audit Agency (BPK) Satrio "Billy" Budihardjo Joedono confirmed that there were indeed transactions in the alleged misuse of government funds (deposited in Account No. 502 at the central bank) that might constitute a criminal violation, but he declined to reveal which ones.
"What's true is that there are two kinds of transactions here -- transactions that are in violation of procedure and those that may have violated the law -- but we're still analyzing it," Billy told reporters on Friday.
Billy, however, declined to go into details about which transactions the agency thought might have broken the law, saying that an early disclosure would be inappropriate.
"We haven't given our opinion to the police about possible transactions that might have broken the law. Of course, it would be a bit odd if we told the press first," he said.
He added, however, that the police and the Attorney General's Office (AGO) might have different opinions from BPK about the classification of the transactions.
"They (police and attorney) have more expertise in determining which acts can be considered criminal, and we have more auditing expertise," said Billy.
He assured the public that BPK would be prepared to provide information should the police and/or the AGO request further assistance in their ongoing investigation.
An audit by BPK, issued in the middle of 2003, has drawn a great deal of public attention after it said there could have been some involvement of two prominent banking authorities, Bank Indonesia (BI) and the Indonesian Bank Restructuring Agency (IBRA), for allegedly misusing around Rp 20.9 trillion (US$2.4 billion) of government funds deposited in Account No. 502.
BI has been accused of misusing Rp 17.7 trillion, while IBRA for the remainder. Both BI and IBRA have consistently denied the accusation, saying that they had followed the rules and stipulations in using the funds.
However, BI has admitted that about Rp 109.5 billion from said funds should not have been withdrawn from the account. BI said that it was due to differences in calendar day counts, currency rates, interest rates and excessive discounts.
Account 502, in which some Rp 53.77 trillion was deposited in, was opened in 1999 under the name of the then minister of finance, Bambang Subianto, who later gave the authority to use it for BI and IBRA.
The funds in the account were intended as blanket guarantee to pay valid claims submitted by third parties toward closed banks and to ensure banks' clients about the security of their savings following the massive run on banks in 1998.
Both BI and IBRA are only holders of the account, and therefore each withdrawal from the account must have been approved by the minister of finance as the owner.
Police have declared four former officials of both institutions as suspects in the graft case, namely BI's former governor Sjahril Sabirin, and IBRA's I Gede Putu Ary Suta, Cacuk Sudarijanto and Toto Budiarso.
The Police on Friday started questioning Sjahril, and the process will resume next week on Wednesday.
Billy also said that BPK was already in the last stage of its audit on IBRA's performance to find out whether the latter had performed well in restructuring the banking sector in the country.
IBRA was established in 1998 during the administration of former president B.J. Habibie to clean up the banking sector, which plunged it into a hectic financial crisis. The agency is due to finish operating on Feb. 27 this year.