House racing against time to debate money laundering bill

A'an Suryana, The Jakarta Post, Jakarta

The House of Representatives (DPR) will have only two weeks to deliberate the money laundering bill, casting doubt over the quality of the crucial legislation.

The limited time for debate was anticipated after the House working committee on money laundering agreed on Monday to extend its deadline for the government to submit the revised bill to March 5.

Chairman of the House working committee Agustin Teras Narang told reporters that the 12-day extension from the original schedule of Feb. 21 would be needed to amend the bill in accordance with some recommendations from the Financial Action Task Force on Money Laundering, an international institution set up by OECD countries in 1989 to combat money laundering worldwide.

The House has set a March 25 deadline to pass the bill, the old version of which was presented to the House last June. The House then considered the bill was not urgent.

House legislators, like civil servants in Jakarta, work five days a week. The legislators will effectively lose one of its working days on March 15, when Muslims celebrate the Islamic New Year.

Due to the limited period, Agustin said the government was expected to submit the revised bill before March 5.

"We need to make sure that the draft is submitted sometime before the deadline," Agustin told The Jakarta Post after a meeting between the working committee members and officials of the Ministry of Justice and Human Rights at the House building here.

Director General for Justice and Legislation at the Ministry of Justice and Human Rights Abdul Gani Abdullah, who represented the government in the meeting, said the revision would fix loopholes found in the old draft.

"The Financial Action Task Force on Money Laundering has reviewed our draft recently, and they found that there were loopholes," Gani after the meeting.

The loopholes included some definitions of related matters to money laundering.

"We have been asked by the international institution to, for example, improve the definition of money laundering itself, which now also covers property apart from funds and wealth. The term of funds is very general; we should define it specifically," he said.

In a bid to improve the already revised draft by the international institution, the government sought an extension from the DPR, Gani said.

The submission was needed since Indonesia had been put on the task force' black list of countries deemed "uncooperative" in tackling money laundering.

This classification would have a negative effect on Indonesia since it could delay disbursement of fresh loans to Indonesia by donor countries.

Paris Club, an organization grouping donor countries providing development loans to Indonesia, has stipulated the requirement that Indonesia must enact an anti-money laundering law, before it can reschedule payment of both interest and principal of Indonesia's foreign debts.

The Paris Club members are set to meet again in April.