House rejects government's request for full PwC report
JAKARTA (JP): House of Representatives Speaker Akbar Tandjung turned down on Monday the government's request for a copy of the full PricewaterhouseCoopers (PwC) audit report into the Bank Bali scandal.
Akbar said it would only be released to the government and made public after it was studied by a joint House committee specially set up to scrutinize the report.
"I have received the request letter from the government. But we have already decided to have the report studied by the joint committee first... The committee is scheduled to be set up on Wednesday and begin deliberation sessions on Thursday or Friday. It has until Dec. 15 to consider the matter," he told Antara.
Akbar recently assigned House Commission II for law and home affairs and House Commission IX for financial and planning affairs to form a joint committee to study the PwC report and to decide whether to publish the report.
He said the government could still obtain the copy from the National Police without having to wait for the House to complete the study on the report.
"The police is the government's own apparatus. So if the government wants, it can obtain the report from the police," he added.
The Supreme Audit Agency (DPA) hired PwC last month to audit the scandal, which allegedly involved close aides of former president B.J. Habibie. The agency gave the full version of the audit only to the police, while the House received its summary report.
DPA initially refused to release the full PwC report to the House, arguing that its publication would violate the country's banking secrecy code.
The agency's refusal to hand over the full audit report caused public controversy, prompting the Supreme Court to issue a Fatwa (legal opinion) declaring that the release of the full PwC audit result to the House would not break any law.
The International Monetary Fund (IMF), World Bank and Asian Development Bank suspended their loan disbursement for Indonesia in September due to the delay of the publication of the full audit report on the scandal.
The Bank Bali scandal centers around a Rp 546 billion (almost US$80 million at current rate) fee paid in early June by Bank Bali to a firm linked to the Golkar Party for its service to recover claims from closed banks.
Bank Bali should not have used the intermediary in recovering the funds as they were covered by the government guarantee on bank deposits and claims.
The PwC audit report shows that Rp 15 billion of the Rp 546 billion fund involved in the scandal was transferred to the account of Golkar's election committee in Jakarta.
The independent audit, commissioned by DPA at the request of the IMF, also found numerous irregularities and indications of fraud involving several senior officials and Golkar executives during the processing and payment of the Bank Bali claims.
Akbar, who is also the chairman of Golkar, said the appointment of the joint committee to study the PwC audit report before its publication was only a matter of complying to existing standard procedures.
"It is not in any way meant to impede the publication of the report," he said, adding that the House could ask the committee to speed up its deliberations.
Benny Pasaribu, a member of House Commission IX from the Indonesian Democratic Party of Struggle faction, acknowledged the strong will expressed by some legislators for the immediate disclose of the report was blocked by the House's bureaucracy.
Separately, head of House Commission IX Sukowaluyo Mintorahardjo called on the government to not be hesitant in having the police deliver the full report so that it would be able to quickly disclose it.
"For the sake of the nation, the government should not be reluctant to disclose the report... There is no need to wait for the House to complete the study," he said, adding that the government needs to have a firm political will to enable it to unravel the case. (cst)