President Susilo Bambang Yudhoyono ordered on Monday a full-fledged probe into corruption at the tax office following disclosure of a suspicious Rp 28 billion in the account of an employee.
It was the first time Yudhoyono made a public statement on the graft case implicating the tax employee Gayus Tambunan, senior police officers, prosecutors and lawyers.
While addressing a cabinet meeting, Yudhoyono described the corruption case “as an obstacle to development which must be removed”.
“Law enforcement institutions and the Judicial Anti-Corruption Taskforce should tackle the issue seriously, make regular progress and report to me,” he told members of the Cabinet attending a meeting.
The tax office, the National Police and the Attorney General’s Office have been taking disciplinary action against individuals implicated in the case widely seen as a sign of failure in administrative reform processes.
The Finance Minister dishonorably fired Gayus on Monday. A media statement released by the ministry said he was dismissed because he had “abused his authority”.
Gayus is suspected of accepting bribes from big tax payers seeking his favor to evade tax or pay less than they are supposed to pay.
Ten tax officials have been undergoing internal investigations. The National Police have suspended several officers and arrested Gayus, two businessmen and their then lawyers.
Attorney General Hendarman Supandji, who has been under attack for his slow response to the high profile case, announced Monday that his office had questioned “between five and 10” prosecutors suspected of collaborating with Gayus, police investigators and lawyers to acquit him of money laundering and embezzlement charges last month.
Hendarman said that the complexity of the case had forced him to take more time to “carefully” examine the implicated prosecutors.
“We hope that tomorrow [today] we will already have the result and by Wednesday we’ll decide what punitive measures we will take against them and on Thursday we can announce who is suspended and so on,” he said.
Attorney General’s Office spokesman Didiek Darmanto said a team of prosecutors planned to question, his then lawyer and police investigators to find prosecutors who were involved in the conspiracy.
Didiek said the questioning would take place at the National Police headquarters. He added that the team would find out if the police had managed to gather convincing evidence to charge Gayus.
“We need to find out whether the prosecutors have done their duties properly or not,” he said.
Hendarman had earlier said that the team of prosecutors had sensed irregularities in the investigation of Gayus that led to his acquittal.
Led by Sutan Burhanuddin, the team had questioned the prosecutors who had handled the case from the beginning. Among the allegedly implicated prosecutors were Cirus Sinaga, Fadil Regan, Eka Kurnia Sukmasari, Ika Safitri Salim, Nasran Aziz, Irvan Jaya, Sriyono, Dita Prawitaningsih and Novarida.
