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two-year political tussle over the controversy surrounding the Bank Century bailout is likely to end in an anticlimax as a second-round audit by the Supreme Audit Agency (BPK) found no trace of President Susilo Bambang Yudhoyono’s inner circle profiting from the bailout.

The BPK’s forensic audit, which was carried out over a six-month period following a request from the House of Representatives, focused on the money trail of the bailout funds.

The audit, a copy of which was shown to The Jakarta Post late on Thursday, also found no indications that former finance minister Sri Mulyani Indrawati or Vice President Boediono gained financial advantage from the bailout funds.

In late 2008, Sri Mulyani, now World Bank managing director, and then central bank governor Boediono, approved a bailout to salvage Bank Century, now renamed as Bank Mutiara, as Indonesia felt the effects of global financial turmoil.

“There’s no evidence to show Yudhoyono’s administration took advantage of the bailout funds,” said BPK deputy chairman Rizal Djalil on Thursday.

“There’s no element of surprise in the audit. The BPK is ready to confront House members who are likely to question the audit’s results and accuse us of tampering with them.”

The BPK is scheduled to officially submit the audit to the House, and release it publicly, today.

The results of the audit were supervised and approved by the BPK’s deputy chairman, Taufiqurrachman Ruki, who is the former first chairman of the Corruption Eradication Commission (KPK).

According to the audit, the BPK had difficulties in tracking the flow of money, as many key witnesses escaped overseas and some supporting documents could not be found.

The BPK also said most of the funds were channeled to overseas banks, causing the agency difficulties in accessing accounts.

The Bank Century debacle centered over suspicions that part of Yudhoyono’s 2009 presidential campaign fund was financed by the bailout, which eventually multiplied tenfold to Rp 6.76 trillion (US$716 million) from the initial plan.

Several parties, including Yudhoyono’s Democratic Party coalition partners, the Golkar Party and the Prosperous Justice Party (PKS), have been using the issue as a political bargaining chip up until now.

Golkar allegedly used the issue in mid-2010 by the forming of the House’s inquiry committee to unseat reform icon Sri Mulyani as finance minister, due to her row with the party’s chairman-cum-businessman, Aburizal Bakrie.

The committee, which was formed in early 2010 to investigate the bailout, has failed to uncover evidence that any member of Yudhoyono’s inner circle, or Sri Mulyani, profited from the bailout.

Despite the failure, politicians kept the issue alive by requesting the BPK to launch a more comprehensive audit focusing on the money trail of the bailout.

While the audit result is not conclusive enough to drag down Yudhoyono, it does strengthen allegations that legislator Emir Moeis from the Indonesian Democratic Party of Struggle (PDI-P), central bank deputy governor Budi Mulya and late businessman Boedi Sampoerna profited from bailout funds.

The PDI-P, the country’s third-largest party, is an opposition party to Yudhoyono’s administration.

Former bailout inquiry initiator Mukhamad Misbakhun from the PKS said he was suspicious the BPK might have received political pressure from the administration to undermine the audit’s results.

“I’m not sure the BPK is strong enough to handle the pressure. I believe they prefer to play safe,” he said. “The BPK auditors tasked with the job were unqualified; deliberately chosen, of course, to fail to spot the big fish.”

Misbakhun was once imprisoned for falsifying loan documents at Bank Century, a move seen by many as retaliation gesture by Yudhoyono’s camp.