Bagus BT Saragih and Erwida Maulia, The Jakarta Post, Jakarta | Wed, 04/07/2010 9:09 AM
The recent revelation of alleged tax corruption involving tax official Gayus H. Tambunan has led investigators to disclose bigger players in corruption practice in the tax office.
Financial Transactions Analysis and Report Center (PPATK) chairman Yunus Husein hinted that his office had detected two or three former high-ranking tax officials possessing hundreds of billions of rupiah of suspicious funds in their bank accounts.
“I have informed the National Police chief, the attorney general and the finance minister,” he said Tuesday after a meeting with President Susilo Bambang Yudhoyono.
Attorney General Hendarman Supandji confirmed his office had received the report from the PPATK.
“I have ordered the junior attorney general for special crimes to study the report,” he said.
The tax corruption case began when the PPATK found that Gayus possessed Rp 28 billion (US$3.08 million) of suspicious funds in his bank account. Police investigations found that the funds were said to be bribes from taxpayers.
Later Tuesday, Finance Minister Sri Mulyani Indrawati swore in 10 officials to replace those implicated in Gayus’ case. “The replacement will ensure that the tax office’s performance can meet its target this year,” she said.
National Police detective chief Comr. Gen. Ito Sumardi said the police had been informed about bigger tax-corruption players. “There are many tax officials whose bank accounts are larger than Gayus’. We are serious in handling the case and hope it will be the entry point to uncover larger cases.”
Yudhoyono also met with the Judicial Anti-Corruption Taskforce. He ordered the taskforce to “extend its wings” to regions and reopen the unsolved Bank Indonesia Liquidity Supports (BLBI) case.
Taskforce head Kuntoro Mangkusubroto said Yudhoyono had expressed hope that the taskforce could again disclose large cases.
In its first three months, the taskforce unveiled two high-profile cases: The allowing of luxury cells at Pondok Bambu Women’s Penitentiary in East Jakarta and alleged tax corruption involving Gayus.
Taskforce secretary Denny Indrayana said Yudhoyono also asked the taskforce to probe the unsolved BLBI case, believed to have caused the state trillions of rupiah in losses, and investigate how it had been handled.
The BLBI case traces back to the 1998 Asian Financial Crisis, when the then government poured in
Rp 600 trillion in liquidity support to dozens of banks. However, only a few banks returned the money to the state.
Kuntoro said Yudhoyono had ordered an immediate reform of tax courts, which were described as “areas full of obscurity”.
“[Tax courts] are places where illegal agreements can take place, and these have impacted on the state budget and other areas,” he said.
Attorney General’s Office spokesman Didiek Darmanto said the supervision division had found
early indications of improper prosecution of Gayus, who was acquitted from a Rp 370 million bribery charge.
He refused to explain further, saying the examination was “still ongoing”.
Among the examined officials were six prosecutors in charge of Gayus’ case.
