BPK ready to help police on account 502 probe

Tony Hotland, The Jakarta Post, Jakarta

The Supreme Audit Agency (BPK) is ready and willing to assist the police with the ongoing investigation into allegations of the misuse of government funds in Account No. 502.

"There has not been any request from the police so far, but we are open to any request of assistance from them," said the agency's head Satrio Budiharjo "Billy" Joedono on Friday, adding that the agency had plenty of data on the case.

"We haven't been in contact with the police since their investigation started, so we don't really know what they need. We're basically following the progress from media reports," he added.

The National Police declared last week that a former Indonesian Bank Restructuring Agency (IBRA) head and his former deputy were suspects in the graft case. Police, however, did not release any names.

The graft case surfaced in August 2003 after BPK suspected that Rp 20.9 trillion from the account had been misused by Bank Indonesia (BI) and IBRA.

The government funds in Bank Indonesia Account No. 502 were to cover the financial obligations of closed banks as part of the government's blanket guarantee program.

Billy also said that his agency had just started preparations to review the performance of IBRA since its establishment in 1998. IBRA is due to finish operating in February.

"We'll look into matters, such as whether those ailing banks have all recovered and whether they'll survive without IBRA. Basically we want to find the answer to whether IBRA has been useful or not," he said.