New scandal worth Rp 200 billion hits BRI
Abdul Khalik, The Jakarta Post, Jakarta
The National Police announced on Tuesday another financial scandal at Bank Rakyat Indonesia (BRI) involving Rp 200 billion (US$23.5 million) from the workers insurance fund, PT Jamsostek.
The alleged fraud emerged as investigations into another fraud case involving Rp 294 billion at the same bank by the Jakarta prosecutor's office entered its third month.
"There were transfers of Rp 200 billion from a PT Jamsostek account at the BRI Sudirman branch to an account at the Bank Mandiri's Prapatan branch. The police have found convincing evidence that this transfer was based on fake documents," said the Deputy Chief of Public Relations Division Brig. Gen. Soenarko.
Soenarko declined to name the owner of the Mandiri account but revealed that it had belonged to a third party, not BRI or PT Jamsostek.
Police questioned BRI President Director Rudjito on Tuesday to figure out who was responsible for the authorization to transfer the funds.
"We are questioning Rudjito as a witness regarding the necessary documents needed in such a process as well as who would have had the authority to make such a transfer," said Soenarko.
He added that the police had already scheduled to question nine other people from both BRI and PT Jamsostek.
An investigator from the National Police Corruption crime division, Sr. Coms. N. Wardhana, said that the investigation was based on a complaint from the public, filed on Oct. 30. He added that the police had questioned eight people from BRI and PT Jamsostek since then.
"We have asked Rudjito dozens of questions in the last four hours. Including him, we have questioned eight people. Tomorrow we will question one more witness from BRI. However, we can't examine the account in Mandiri before until we get permission from Bank Indonesia," said Wardhana.
"We have to wait for the BI permission to be able to know the total amount of money in Bank Mandiri. Having access to the account, we can determine the state's loss in the scandal," said Wardhana.
Rudjito deliberately avoided the press while leaving the police station and hurriedly went to the his car after the questioning. BRI corporate secretary Yadi Prayitno said that he would represent Rudjito to answer reporters' questions.
"This interrogation has nothing to do with the Senen branch fraud. Rudjito has been questioned about what authority he had over the Sudirman branch in the transfer," said Yadi.
The Jakarta prosecutor's office is currently investigating a financial scam worth Rp 294 billion involving BRI's three branches -- Senen, Tanah Abang and Bogor.
The two cases have a similarity in that both involved a third party and fake documents to reap money from the bank. Both also involved PT Jamsostek funds.
Marwan Effendy, the assistant to the Jakarta Prosecutor's Office chief for special crimes, said on Tuesday that they had questioned the president director of PT Jamsostek over the loss of the company's funds in the scandal, but did not elaborate.
The prosecutor's office has declared three officials from BRI branches and two businessmen as suspects as well as questioned over 20 witnesses and frozen more than 30 accounts. They have also recovered Rp 60 billion in state money.
The prosecutors had also found Rp 2 billion of the fraud funds at Citibank, and planned to place those funds in the same account as the Rp 60 billion at the BRI Senen branch.