Jakarta Globe & Antara – The Finance Ministry has confirmed that a bank account at PT Bank Century containing $17.28 million held by the finance minister was not Finance Minister Sri Mulyani Indrawati's personal account but that of the government.
The disclosure of the account's existence was made during the House of Representatives' special committee hearing on Thursday into the controversial Rp 6.7 trillion ($710 million) bailout of the bank in 2008. Critics say the bailout far exceeded the Rp 1.3 trillion amount approved by the House.
During the hearing, Yunus Husein, head of the Financial Transaction Reports and Analysis Center (PPATK), confirmed the existence of the account.
Legislators seized on the account in a Supreme Audit Agency (BPK) audit, which stated that the Finance Ministry had transferred grants from the US Department of Agriculture to the Indonesian government worth $17.28 million on Nov. 1, 2005.
But just where the money had gone was unclear, Yunus said, drawing the wrath of a number of legislators when he declined to speculate on the funds' whereabouts.
"Mr. Yunus, we just want clarification. Is it true that there was an account belonging to the finance minister [at Bank Century]?" said Marwan Fajar, a member of the investigating committee from the National Awakening Party (PKB), according to news portal Detik.com.
Just hours after the hearing concluded, the ministry released a statement saying the account "under the name of the finance minister, was opened when the minister was still Mr. Jusuf Anwar." Jusuf was replaced as minister in December 2007.
The funds in the account "up until now are still recorded as belonging to the government and are reported to the BPK every year in the central government's financial report," the ministry added.
Fauzi Ichsan, an economist from Standard Chartered Bank, said on Friday that he supported the investigation into the Bank Century bailout, but warned against the increasingly political tone the committee was taking, warning that its credibility was on the line as well as confidence in the country's economic footing.
He said speculation that attempts were underway to remove Sri Mulyani and Vice President Boediono – both respected, reform-minded professionals – from their positions had made market players more cautious about the country's political stability.
"We had a peaceful presidential election and the cabinet was formed over a month ago," Fauzi said. "These two figures are seen by the market as highly accountable; now some want them removed from the cabinet?"
Speaking during Thursday's hearing, Yunus said that as part of efforts to trace the Bank Century funds, the PPATK had found transfers to names "identical to or resembling" those of a number of leaders of political parties.
"The focus of our fund flow tracing efforts so far has not been on money transfers to political parties, but on transfers to scores of individuals and institutions. And we found such transfers to at least 10 names that were identical with or resembling those of political party leaders," he said.
Yunus said the PPATK has not been able to verify whether the names were those of political party leaders or of others who just happened to have the same names. He declined to list the names.
"I cannot mention those names because of legal restrictions. It is not that I am unwilling to help the committee, but I just don't want to breach the law," Yunus said.
A number of committee members asked Yunus to gather more information on the suspicious transfers and to present his findings to the committee at a later date.
Committee chairman Idrus Marham of the Golkar party gave the PPATK two weeks to meet again with the committee. Yunus has complained about technical and manpower constraints in carrying out the investigation into Bank Century.