RI urged to do more to curb money laundering
Dadan Wijaksana, Jakarta
The Financial Action Task Force (FATF), a global money-laundering watchdog that has listed Indonesia as a non-cooperative nation in the fight against the practice, has issued recommendations that would enable the country to get off the list.
The recommendations were conveyed at a plenary meeting of FATF on July 2 in Paris, said Yunus Husein, chairman of the Financial Transaction Reports and Analysis Center (PPATK) antimoney- laundering agency.
"It mainly centers on three issues; Indonesia must improve its performance in the prosecuting of money-laundering cases, setting up cooperation with similar agencies overseas, and improving the monitoring scheme of the country's financial system," Yunus said on Tuesday, adding that the efforts should make the antimoney- laundering drive more effective.
On the first issue, PPATK deputy chairman I Made Sadguna said the country -- via the National Police and Attorney's General Office -- had yet to complete investigation of cases related to the laundering of ill-gotten money.
"Including the high-profile case of BNI, which has drawn serious attention from the international community," he added, referring to the bank's much-publicized Rp 1.7 trillion lending scam.
Law No. 25/2003 defines money-laundering as the practice of converting money generated from corruption, bribery, smuggling, banking-related crimes, drug-related crimes, people trafficking, gambling and terrorism into legal investments.
The PPATK, established two years ago, is tasked with collecting, recording and analyzing all information reported by financial service providers in the form of suspicious transaction reports (STR) and cash transaction reports (CTR). Reports that indicate crimes will be forwarded to the police or the Attorney General's Office for further investigation.
As of July 6, the PPATK has received 471 reports of suspicious transactions from the country's banks and non-bank financial institutions. "Of which 295 have been forwarded to the police," Sadguna said.
"The lack of legal action is one reason why Indonesia is still on the FATF list of non-cooperative countries or territories (NCCTs)," he added.
Being on the list, Indonesia could face FATF countermeasures, which include imposition of premium charges on transactions with foreign companies, halting correspondence between Indonesian banks and their counterparts in developed countries and rejecting Indonesian letters of credit.
As to improving the monitoring scheme, Yunus said, the PPATK was working together with Bank Indonesia and the Capital Market Supervisory Agency (Bapepam) to create rulings requiring banks and other financial institutions to undergo a compliance audit to oversee their compliance to the anti money-laundering drive.
"On-site examination is also part of this effort," Yunus added.