Nivell Rayda & Markus Junianto Sihaloho – As red-faced lawmakers demanded to know why the antigraft commission had not received copies of detailed findings from the House of Representatives inquiry into the Bank Century bailout, a lawmaker acknowledged on Thursday that administrative rules were to blame.

"The recommendations and findings were never forwarded to the KPK [Corruption Eradication Commission] because according to House regulations, we only hand out one copy, which goes to the president," said House Secretary General Nining Indra Saleh, as legislators continued to call the incident a deliberate attempt at sabotage.

Nining's statement comes a day after the KPK's meeting with the House committee overseeing the criminal investigation of the Rp 6.7 trillion ($743.7 million) bailout. House members said the KPK should have been given copies of all dossiers and inquiry records connected to the House probe. Some legislators claimed the final recommendation contained instructions to the House Secretariat General to forward all documents to law-enforcement agencies.

"What we gave the KPK was only the final recommendation, but the files and documents related to the probe weren't included. We were only following House rules," Nining said.

House Deputy Speaker Pramono Anung from the Indonesian Democratic Party of Struggle (PDI-P) said on Thursday that he believed the documentation had been "deliberately concealed from the KPK by those with a vested interest in seeing the investigation stopped."

Fellow Deputy Speaker Priyo Budi Santoso from Golkar said the House had promptly convened a meeting on Wednesday between party leaders to discuss the matter.

"We'll ensure the KPK will get everything it needs," he said. "The House probe resulted in many findings. We'll instruct the secretariat specifically to provide copies to the KPK."

PDI-P legislator Sidharto Dhanusubroto said everything should have been delivered to the commission a month ago. "For us, this reeks of carelessness," he said. "We demand an immediate meeting with the House leadership on the matter."

Legislator Achsanul Kosasih from the Democratic Party agreed, calling it strange that the results of the House inquiry had not been sent off to the KPK. "It must be investigated," he said. "We don't want people thinking the Democratic Party is behind this negligence."

The PDIP's Hendrawan Supratikno said: "Now we know why the KPK's investigation has been so slow. It never received our detailed findings. We thought that the KPK would not really need to conduct any preliminary investigations, since they would use our findings instead."

Separately, Chandra M Hamzah, KPK deputy chairman for enforcement, said the commission was not as dependent on the House's recommendations as lawmakers had made out.

"We conducted our own inquiries and collected documents of our own," Chandra said. "Even without the paperwork from the House, our investigation's proceeding fine."

Critics of the November 2008 bailout are seeking criminal investigations into Finance Minister Sri Mulyani Indrawati and Vice President Boediono, the central bank governor at the time, for authorizing the bailout.

On Wednesday, Sri Mulyani announced her resignation as she accepted her appointment as managing director of the World Bank. She will be inaugurated in her new post on June 1.

KPK Deputy Chairman Bibit Samad Rianto said her departure from the country and diplomatic immunity would not stop the commission from investigating the outgoing minister.

Sri Mulyani's immunity "only applies to offenses committed after she is appointed [as a World Bank director]," he said. "The bailout occurred during her tenure as finance minister and chairwoman of the KSSK [Financial System Stability Committee].

"It all depends on the outcome of our investigation," Bibit added. "If it leads to [Sri Mulyani], we'll question her, even if we have to go to Washington ourselves."

He said his office was poring over the testimony she gave to KPK investigators at a six-hour questioning session on Tuesday, before deciding whether further questioning was required.