Police probe bank accounts of officers

Police probe bank accounts of officers

Eva C. Komandjaja, The Jakarta Post/Jakarta

The National Police have begun investigations into reports
submitted by the Financial Transactions and Report Analysis
Center (PPATK) on suspicious transactions from bank accounts
owned by 15 police officers.

National Police chief Gen. Sutanto told the press on Friday
that he already ordered the internal affairs division to follow
up on the reports.

"We are working together with PPATK in the investigation, but
we cannot disclose the details because the reports remain secret
to the public for investigation purposes," he said.

Last Tuesday, the PPATK submitted the transaction reports to
Sutanto as part of its regular duty to report any suspicious
transactions in the bank accounts of senior police officers.

Sutanto said that in carrying out the investigation, the
police's internal affairs division would exchange information
with other anticorruption bodies, such as the Corruption
Eradication Commission (KPK) and the interdepartmental
anticorruption team chaired by Hendarman Supandji, who is also
deputy attorney general for special crimes.

The KPK had previously signed a memorandum of understanding
with the National Police before Sutanto replaced Gen. Da'i
Bachtiar as police chief to improve coordination in handling
criminal cases, including corruption within the police.

When asked about the possibility that certain internal affairs
officers were the owners of some of the investigated accounts,
Sutanto gave an unsatisfactory response.

Separately, PPATK head Yunus Hussein told The Jakarta Post
that the bank accounts, where the suspicious transactions were
found, were not only owned by high-ranking police officers.

"It's not only generals who own these accounts, but also lower
level officers such as sergeants," he said.

However, Yunus refused to specify the amounts of the
suspicious transactions, saying he was not authorized to do so.

He also denied media reports quoting him as saying that one of
the accounts held up to Rp 800 billion (US$81.4 million).

Yunus said the bank transactions inquiry was part of his
center's regular system and that nobody had requested the PPATK
to check the officers' accounts.

"Nobody asked us to check those accounts. It was our own
system that requires us to do so regularly. It happened that we
found suspicious transactions in police officers' accounts this
time," he explained.

Yunus also said the transactions had actually been detected
last year, but the PPATK decided to submit them to the police
after Sutanto took office in the hope that his clean reputation
would help the PPATK resolve graft cases in the country.

When submitting the reports to Sutanto, he said, the center
did not recommend that the police chief freeze the bank accounts.
"We only give the reports to the police. It is up to the police
to do whatever they want with them."