Abdul Khalik, Jakarta – The Corruption Eradication Commission (KPK) expressed its commitment Wednesday to investigate the 102 illegal accounts belonging to the Supreme Court.
KPK chairman Antasari Azhar underlined the antigraft body would track down the source of the money in the accounts, the motives behind the opening of the accounts, the individuals responsible for them, and the intended purpose of the money.
The KPK will press ahead with a criminal investigation if there are any indications of embezzlement of funds in the accounts, he added.
"The team tackling the investigation into the accounts has worked fast," Antasari said, adding his office had questioned three officials from the Supreme Court, the institution accused by the Finance Ministry of having the most illegal accounts.
Earlier this month, the ministry handed over information on more than 260 illegal bank accounts, with total deposits of Rp 314.2 billion (US$29 million) and $11 million.
The accounts include 102 belonging to the Supreme Court, 66 to the Justice and Human Rights Ministry, 36 to the Home Ministry, 32 to the Agriculture Ministry, 21 to the Manpower and Transmigration Ministry, one to the Social Services Ministry and two to the Upstream Oil and Gas Executive Agency (BPMigas).
The Finance Ministry insists all the money in the accounts must be returned to the state as nontax revenue.
On Tuesday, after being questioned by the KPK for seven hours, Supreme Court finance head Darmawan S. Jamian said that in addition to the 102 accounts reported by the Finance Ministry, there were another 1,130 similar accounts belonging to district and high courts across the country.
He said the accounts were established to store fees charged to defendants and plaintiffs whose cases were tried in the courts.
"Not all the 102 accounts belong to the Supreme Court," he stressed. "Only two belong to us, the rest are spread over 54 courts across the country. Beside, they are just a small fraction of all accounts within the courts, because there are 1,130 accounts belonging to district and high courts."
He added he did not remember the total amount of money placed in the accounts.
Besides questioning Darmawan, the KPK has since Monday also interrogated Supreme Court secretary-general Rum Nessa and legal and public relations head Nurhadi.
On Wednesday, Supreme Court spokesman Djoko Sarwoko refused to reveal the total amount of money deposited in the accounts, but did not deny they existed. "The KPK has done the investigation. It's now up to them to decide whether the accounts are legal or not. You should ask them [about it]," he said.
With each account containing an estimated minimum Rp 5 billion, Indonesia Corruption Watch (ICW) says the value of the deposits in the 1,130 accounts could reach trillions of rupiah.
Yuhus Hussein, head of the Financial Transaction Reports Analysis Center (PPATK), a financial intelligence body, said his office had begun working to track down the accounts to find out the amount of money involved.
"We will help, but we have just begun," he said. "We still have no idea how much money we are talking about."