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Police probe leaves out Bakrie firms
The police are investigating only smaller firms whose taxes were filed by Gayus Tambunan, but have not indicated they will probe larger entities affiliated with powerful tycoon and politician Aburizal Bakrie
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T
he police are investigating only smaller firms whose taxes were filed by Gayus Tambunan, but have not indicated they will probe larger entities affiliated with powerful tycoon and politician Aburizal Bakrie.
Gayus testified to police investigators that he received bribes from 40 companies, including those linked to the Bakrie family, to falsify tax documents.
However, the police have only investigated four companies Gayus is known to have done work for: PT SAT, a shrimp-processing company in Sidoarjo, East Java; PT DAS, an oil drilling equipment rental company in Jakarta, PT EP, a national cellular phone operator; and PT ITP, a cement producer in Citeurup, West Java.
Gayus never mentioned the four during questioning sessions with the police. However, he said many sources of bribe money he had received had come from three mining companies affiliated with Bakrie, including PT Bumi Resources, PT Kaltim Prima Coal (KPC) and PT Arutmin.
“The investigation is still ongoing and detectives cannot work based solely on testimonies. We must collect supporting evidence,” National Police spokesman Insp. Gen. Edward Aritonang said Sunday regarding the police’s decision not to investigate the Bakrie companies.
Secretary of the Judicial Mafia Taskforce, Denny Indrayana, said the police must follow up Gayus’ testimonies on Bakrie companies. “The police must verify this by collecting supporting evidence and questioning all implicated parties,” he said.
Denny said he had learned about the Bakrie companies’ alleged involvement in the tax fraud case after Gayus was arrested in March.
Aburizal, who heads President Susilo Bambang Yudhoyono’s joint administration of coalition parties, is also the chief patron of the Bakrie family.
On Saturday, Aburizal said the three companies were publicly-listed and he had no control over them. “I’m only one of the shareholders. The companies belong to the public,” he said.
Secretary-general of Transparency International Indonesia Teten Masduki said the Gayus case would remain a mystery if the big companies implicated were left untouched.
“There must be other big players in the case whom the police must also investigate,” Teten said.
Gayus testified to police in early April that he had received payments amounting to US$500,000 from KPC, $500,000 from Bumi and $2 million jointly from KPC and Arutmin.
Representatives from the three companies have denied the accusations, saying the firms never involved Gayus in their tax payments and that they had clear tax payment records.
Sources close to the police said KPC had actually disbursed $3 million to settle a currency misinterpretation dispute with the tax office in Jakarta, in 2008.
Half of the funds were channeled to a person identified by the initials MPM, a tax official who was Gayus’ former superior.
Gayus testified that he had received $500,000 from that amount with the remaining $1 million being split evenly by middleman Alif Kuncoro and his brother Imam C Maliki. Alif and Imam are allegedly long-time tax brokers for Bakrie companies.
Only Alif was named a suspect, and Imam and MPM were not investigated. Alif is now under police custody.
