Quick resolution sought in BNI case
Tony Hotland, Jakarta
The Financial Transaction and Report Analysis Center (PPATK) has blamed the government's lack of political will and effort in curbing money-laundering here as the reasons why Indonesia was still considered an uncooperative country.
PPATK director Yunus Husein said on Wednesday that Indonesia had still not been taken off the Financial Action Task Force (FATF)'s list of uncooperative countries and territories in the global fight against money-laundering.
"Indonesia is still on the list (of uncooperative countries). If the government were to act quickly to resolve money-laundering cases, such as the BNI case, we would have some success stories that we could sell," said Yunus before a closed-door meeting with the House of Representatives' finance commission to discuss the BNI case.
He said that the BNI scandal was one of the things discussed during the FATF regional meeting in Korea from June 14 to June 18.
The Paris-based FATF is a global money-laundering watchdog set up by the developed nations grouped in the Organization for Economic Cooperation and Development (OECD). Indonesia has been on the FATF's list of uncooperative countries and territories (NCCTs) since June 2001.
The possible sanctions that could be imposed against Indonesia include the imposition of premium charges on transactions with foreign companies, the halting of correspondence between Indonesian banks and their counterparts in FATF countries and the rejection of Indonesian letters of credit (L/Cs)
The BNI scandal centered in the extension of export credit facilities last year to a number of local firms that claimed they were exporting commodities to certain African countries. But the facilities were provided without proper prior credit appraisals, and it turned out that the documents used to obtain the letters of credit were fake and that there were, in fact, no exports involved.
More than six months after the case, BNI claims that the recovery rate for the lost money, which amounted to some Rp 1.7 trillion (US$180.85 million), is still zero. None of the suspects has been punished, and the prime suspect, Maria Pauline Lumowa, was allowed to flee the country.
Yunus said that the PPATK had received some suspicious transaction reports related to BNI's missing millions, some of which had been transferred overseas.
He urged the police to speed up their investigation and work together with the countries where the money had been parked.