Bakrie tells members to accept BPK audit

JAKARTA: Golkar Party chairman Aburizal Bakrie called on party members to stop being critical of the forensic audit of the Bank Century bailout released last week by the Supreme Audit Agency (BPK).

“Golkar members don’t have the right to say whether the BPK audit report is right or wrong,” Ical said on Tuesday.

“We should respect the result of this audit and we should not accuse the BPK of making a mistake or that their work is illegitimate,” he added.

The Golkar Party faction at the House of Representatives has been at the forefront in demanding a second-round BPK audit. Golkar lawmaker Bambang Soesatyo, for example, slammed the audit and lambasted it as the result of political intervention.

Pundits have speculated that Golkar has used the bailout issue as a political bargaining chip. In 2010, Golkar led the moves to form the House’s inquiry committee with a mission to unseat reform icon and then finance minister Sri Mulyani Indrawati, due to her row with Aburizal over unpaid taxes.

The BPK audit found no trace of President Susilo Bambang Yudhoyono’s inner circle, including Sri Mulyani and then Bank Indonesia Governor Boediono, who were two central policy makers behind the Bank Century rescue, profiting from the bailout funds worth Rp. 6.76 trillion (US$716 million).