Markus Junianto Sihaloho & Ezra Sihite – The leadership of the House of Representatives said on Monday that suspicions of irregular transactions stemming from reports by the anti-money laundering agency should be followed up.
Deputy House Speaker Taufik Kurniawan said law enforcers should immediately look into the reports submitted by the Financial Transaction Reports and Analysis Center (PPATK).
"The irregular ones need more information on the details, even more so as there are indications of lawbreaking," the National Mandate Party (PAN) lawmaker said.
He called on House Commission III, which oversees legal affairs and received the PPATK reports, to follow them up by relaying the suspicious accounts and transactions described to the Corruption Eradication Commission (KPK) and the police.
"We are asking that House Commission III make this into a lesson. After receiving detailed information from PPATK, they should be committed to transparency and there should not be the image of a laissez-faire attitude and that society is being ignored," he said.
House Speaker Marzuki Alie of the Democratic Party also called for an further investigation into the suspicious accounts and transactions. "Please, open them in line with your authorities," he said.
Speaking at a Commission III hearing on Monday, the PPATK said there were more than 1,800 people who since 2003 had been detected as having suspiciously large bank accounts. They included 707 accounts held by civil servants, 89 by police, 12 by prosecutors, 17 by judges, one by a KPK official and 65 by lawmakers.
Commission III deputy chairman Nasir Jamil of the Prosperous Justice Party (PKS) said the PPATK should provide more details on the suspected accounts owned by police and military officers.
Commission III member Bambang Soesatyo of the Golkar Party asked that PPATK name those law enforcers suspected of possessing suspect accounts. "We are asking PPATK to give their identities to the [House]," Bambang said,
Answering a query from Commission III member Eva Kusuma Sundari of the Indonesian Democratic Party of Struggle (PDI-P), PPATK chairman Muhammad Yusuf said that while the reports of the large accounts held by police officers had been submitted to the National Police headquarters, those involving military officers had yet to be handed over. "Under the law, it is unclear who we should report it to. That is the problem," he said.
Yusuf said most of the accounts in question were discovered by the PPATK while 412 of them were pursued at the request of investigators from the KPK or the prosecutors' office.