Jakarta – The Finance Ministry has handed more than 260 "illegal" bank accounts belonging to four ministries and two state institutions to the Corruption Eradication Commission (KPK) for further investigation.

The accounts – which together encompass Rp 314.2 billion (US$29 million) and $11 million – include 102 that belong to the Supreme Court, 66 to the Ministry of Justice and Human Rights, 36 to the Home Ministry, 32 to the Agriculture Ministry, 21 to the Manpower and Transmigration Ministry, and two to upstream oil and gas regulator BPMigas.

Another account, which belongs to the Social Services Ministry, is currently being examined by the Finance Ministry and will be handed over soon to the KPK, Finance Minister Sri Mulyani Indrawati said Thursday.

"The Finance Ministry and the KPK have agreed to establish a joint team to investigate the illegal accounts," Mulyani told reporters.

Under the 2004 State Treasury Law, ministries and state institutions are permitted to hold accounts on the condition of approval by the Finance Ministry and the State Treasury. All other accounts are deemed illegal.

The law is intended to clean up the mess of unregistered accounts, referred to as nonbudgetary funds, many of which have become the centers of graft scandals.

Mulyani said the 260 accounts had been selected from more than 2,000 accounts that the Supreme Audit Agency (BPK) had construed to be illegal.

Last September, the BPK announced it had uncovered 2,240 illegal bank accounts belonging to ministries and government institutions, encompassing a total of Rp 1.39 trillion.

An ensuing verification process conducted by the ministry categorized 260 of those accounts as "suspicious".

"There is a possibility of corruption involving the accounts, that's why we asked the KPK to investigate the accounts further," said the ministry's senior official Hekinus Manao.

"We hope the progress (on the investigation) can be reported by March," Hekinus said, adding that the ministry wanted to include the progress in its 2008 financial report, which is due at the end of March.

Since 2003, the BPK has never included an opinion about the state's financing in its annual budget report, despite the prevalence of illegal accounts.

The BPK reported that as of October last year the state had lost Rp 31.14 trillion and $458 million due to "irregularities", including some 10 trillion lost to illegal accounts.

The Indonesia Corruption Watch says the ministry was able to reclaim Rp 7.28 trillion of those amounts to state coffers from 2007 to 2008. (hwa)