Theft at Peruri revealed

JAKARTA: An employee of state security printer Perum Peruri, which prints the country's banknotes, was arrested over the weekend by the police for alleged theft of thousands of banknotes worth billions of rupiah over the past several years.

The deputy chief of the Jakarta Police's fraud squad, Adj. Sr. Comr. Agung Sabar Santoro, said on Monday that his officers were still ascertaining the total amount of money that had been stolen and how many people were involved in the theft.

The suspect, who had been a Peruri employee for 20 years and was identified as Mulyono, was arrested after the police received an anonymous letter two weeks ago stating that a theft racket had been going on in the state company for years.

"Based on the report, we launched an investigation and questioned a number of employees, and this lead us to the suspect," Agung said.

The suspect may be charged under Article 372 of the Criminal Code on theft, which carries a maximum punishment of five years in prison.

The case confirms widespread rumors of lax internal control in the security printer, which could partly explain the increasing number of counterfeit banknotes circulating in the country over the last several years.

Figures from Bank Indonesia show that between January and September of last year, BI recovered 36,550 fake notes -- an increase of 40 percent compared to the same period in 2003. -- JP