House racing against time to debate money laundering bill
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.