RI slow to review money laundering law

RI slow to review money laundering law

Urip Hudiono, The Jakarta Post, Jakarta

With the House of Representatives dragging its feet in amending
the country's antimoney laundering law, Indonesia could slip back
onto the list of countries categorized as havens for money
launderers, an expert warns.

The chairman of the Financial Transaction Reports Analysis
Center (PPATK), Yunus Husein, said that of the 55 laws the House
was scheduled to review and amend this year -- including the
antimoney laundering law -- no significant progress had been made
on any of the laws.

"It is not that I am being pessimistic, but the review of the
law in the House is going really slowly," Yunus said on Wednesday
during a panel discussion of Law No. 15/2002 on antimoney
laundering.

The amendment of the antimoney laundering law is particularly
important, Yunus said, to fix the existing shortcomings in
Indonesia's antimoney laundering regime and to accommodate new
international standards.

The House previously amended Law No. 15/2002, along with Law
No. 25/2003 -- which included the establishment of the PPATK --
in an effort to remove Indonesia from the Financial Action Task
Force (FATF)'s list of Non-Cooperative Countries and Territories.

The FATF, a global money laundering watchdog set up by the
Organization for Economic Cooperation and Development, removed
Indonesia from the list in February this year, but will continue
to monitor the country's progress on a yearly basis.

Yunus previously said the FATF could reconsider its decision
to remove Indonesia from the list if the country failed to heed
the task force's six follow-up recommendations, which include
intensifying financial audits of small banks, improving the audit
process and systems, drafting mutual legal assistance bills for
money laundering suspects and prosecuting them in a timely
manner, and increasing the capacity of the PPATK and widening its
authority to freeze any suspicious accounts.

Yunus said his office would continue to improve its work
pending the law's amendment, particularly in widening its
reporting parties, which currently consist of 4,000 banks and
nonbank financial institutions.

"In the future, we expect to receive reports from lawyers,
public accountants, property agents and even car dealers -- just
like in the United States -- to better monitor the flow of funds
in the country," he said.

The PPATK has as of May 13 received 19,078 suspicious
transaction reports, of which 278 of them have been followed up
on by the police. Only 45 cases, however, have reached
prosecutors, while the rest were set aside for lack of evidence.