In July, the National Police announced that out of 23 suspicious bank accounts reported by the Financial Transaction Analysis and Report Center (PPATK), 17 were claimed to be cleared up. But they refused to give more data on these cases, or on others not cleared up.

The freedom of information law stipulates that bank account data is not considered confidential if it concerns state officials.

Agus said ICW had asked the National Police for the data on these allegedly fat bank accounts on Aug. 2 but two days later the police rejected this request.

They said the anti-money laundering law prevented them from disclosing personal information about individuals’ bank accounts.

“We have filed a second request but they haven’t responded. That’s why we filed this case with KIP,” Agus said.

KIP chairman Ahmad Alamsyah Saragih said the commission would study the case and summon police representatives for clarification.

“Within 14 days, we will decide whether this case should go to mediation for settlement,” he said.

If mediation fails, Alamsyah said, the case would go to an adjudication hearing similar to a criminal court hearing.

The ruling of an adjudication hearing is final with no appeal. The law says any party refusing to execute such a ruling can be punished with up to three years in jail and Rp 20 million (US$2,240) in fines.

Alamsyah said the one-year-old commission had never handled information disputes with the police.

From 31 information disputes the commission received since its establishment in 2009, three cases ended with mediation and two ended with adjudication hearings.

“Some plaintiffs in the five cases are still complaining that the related  state institutions are reluctant to obey our rulings,” Alamsyah.

He acknowledged that freedom of information was new in Indonesia and therefore it could not be implemented perfectly at the start.

He said however that no commissioners would be afraid to handle the “sensitive” case of the police’s fat bank accounts.

“This is just like other information disputes we have dealt with. Why should we be afraid? Our legal umbrella is the information law, and it gives us the authority to probe information disputes involving any state institutions,” Alamsyah said.

A National Police spokesman, Brig. Gen. I Ketut Untung Yoga Ana, played down the ICW report to
the KIP

“Go ahead. KIP indeed has the authority to handle such a dispute. We know it,” he said.

Yoga reiterated that only the PPATK had access to any information related to bank accounts.

This refusal of the National Police has triggered suspicion their internal affairs unit did not do a good job.

Tempo magazine, which ran a cover story on the bank accounts and their alleged holders, had their office attacked by Molotov cocktails not long after the magazine hit the newsstand.

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