T

he Attorney General’s Office (AGO) has named a former official at the taxation directorate general a suspect for alleged corruption believed to have inflicted losses on the state larger than those made by notorious tax official Gayus Tambunan.

AGO investigation director Arnold Angkauw said on Friday that the tax official, identified only by the initials DW, had been investigated after receiving information from the public about his family’s wealth.

Arnold said that the AGO then coordinated with the Financial Transaction Reports and Analysis Center (PPATK) to follow up on the report and found out that DW had numerous assets and accounts.

The AGO did not disclose the amount of funds in his accounts, but sources said he and his wife had about Rp 60 billion (US$6.62 million) in their bank accounts.

“DW is charged with clause five of the Anti-Corruption Law. We have banned him from going abroad,” Arnold said as quoted by Antara.

DW’s alleged corruption was initially made public by Finance Minister Agus Martowardojo on Thursday.

Agus said that a taxation directorate general official, identified as DA, who was later known as DW’s wife, was suspected of corruption, and the amount of state losses might be greater than those caused by Gayus, a mid-ranking tax officer who made headlines in 2010 for having billions in his accounts, despite his small salary.

Gayus is currently serving a 10-year prison term for one of his several corruption cases.

Gayus, in total, is implicated in four cases of money laundering and corruption.

Taxation directorate general spokesman Dedi Rudaedi confirmed that DA was an officer at the tax office and that DW also once worked at the directorate general.

“As of January 2012, DW moved to the Jakarta administration office,” Dedi told The Jakarta Post at his
office.

Dedi said that the taxation directorate became aware of the alleged corruption when officers from the AGO came on Tuesday to search DA’s office for evidence.

“The officers took some of DA’s personal belongings and a central processing unit,” Dedi said, adding that both DA and DW had at least spent 10 years of their careers at the taxation directorate general.

“DA’s current position is a staffer in the tax appeals department and DW worked as an account representative before he left,” Dedi said. DA’s position is similar to that of Gayus, when the latter’s massive accounts made public headlines.

Separately, one of the deputy chairmen at the House of Representatives Commission XI on finance, national development planning, banking and non-bank financial institutions, Harry Azhar Azis from the Golkar Party, said that the latest findings of alleged corruption at the taxation directorate general
showed that the institution had failed to reform.