Jakarta – Indonesia Corruption Watch (ICW) has called on legislators to halt their investigation into the Bank Century bailout and to hand over their findings to the Constitutional Court and the Corruption Eradication Commission (KPK).

"We are wasting time listening to the arguments of the House of Representatives' inquiry committee into the case that are skirting the real issues," ICW activist Febri Diansyah told reporters at a press conference on Sunday.

He said he suspected the case had become a political commodity and that members of the inquiry team had begun to stray from the initial aim of settling the case.

ICW coordinator Danang Widoyoko said the case would be better handled by the Court and the antigraft commission.

"It's the end of the road [for the parliamentary investigation]. If the results indeed correlate with the facts presented at the committee hearings, then the legislators should hand it over to the Court," he said.

Danang added the Court would serve as the ideal institution to decide whether the country's President or Vice President had breached the law. "The Court has the credibility and integrity to lead the process," he said.

The KPK, meanwhile, should carry out its own investigation into possible criminal aspects in the case, Danang added.

Earlier this week, KPK deputy chairman Chandra M. Hamzah said the commission questioned 14 Bank Indonesia officials, seven Deposit Insurance Agency officials, 13 Bank Century officials and two Finance Ministry officials on the case.

Danang said there were a few things that the KPK should make a note of, such as the presence of state-owned enterprises (SOE) fund in the bank and the "peculiarly weak" position of the Capital Market and Financial Institutions Supervisory Agency (Bapepam-LK) in the matter.

"The KPK should find out whether there were certain parties channeling the funds from SOEs to the ailing bank to increase its cash adequacy ratio," he said.

Danang added that the presence of SOE funds might indicate that the enterprises were a victim of "robbery by the owners of Century".

Maruarar Sirait from the Indonesian Democratic Party of Struggle (PDI-P) denied speculation that members of his party were influenced by political motives. "We will not be involved in any kind of political transaction," he said.

Another committee member, Agun Gunanjar from the Golkar party, said that handing the case findings over to the Court would not be an easy task.

To hand over the findings, the House has to use its right to voice opinions – a right provided by the same legal basis as that of the right to inquire.

"You can't jump from using the right to inquiry to the right to voicing an opinion... there has to be a special plenary or special team established for that purpose," he said.