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survey conducted by the Financial Transaction Reports and Analysis Center (PPATK) has shown that the country'€™s efforts in preventing and eradicating money laundering have been effective, as indicated by a Public Perception Index of 5.07, which is measured on a scale from zero (worst) to 10 (excellent).

PPATK chairman Muhammad Yusuf, however, warned the government against being complacent and urged relevant law enforcement agencies to improve their efforts in combating the crime.

'€œThe result means that law enforcement, indeed, is on the right track, but the agencies need to show their best performances. One area that they should work more on is coordination,'€ Yusuf said on Friday, while announcing the results of the survey.

The survey, conducted between September and November this year, involving 3,000 respondents, comprising bank customers from 600 branch offices of 11 banks in the country, including three major state-owned banks: Mandiri, BRI and BNI.

The respondents came from various backgrounds, including government, academia and the general
society.

The survey found that 73.95 percent of the respondents were convinced that money laundering resulted from the corrupt behavior of senior public officials and politicians.

More than 71 percent of the respondents also believed that weak law enforcement has contributed to money laundering practices.

PPATK research division director Ivan Yustiavandana said that the public'€™s trust in law enforcers to eradicate money laundering was low, with the National Police being the least trusted institution, receiving only a 26 percent approval rating.

'€œAccording to the respondents, the most trusted law enforcement agency is the Corruption Eradication Commission [KPK], with a 68 percent job approval rating,'€ he said.

Ivan said that the respondents also felt distrust toward the House of Representatives when it produced regulations related to money laundering.

'€œThey highly believe that the regulations were designed with political interests in mind,'€ Ivan said.

The survey also showed that 53.54 percent of the respondents were of the opinion that the law enforcers'€™ weak performances were due to the weak coordination among institutions. '€œThe public thinks that each institution still has a high sectoral ego,'€ Ivan said.

The survey further showed that almost all the respondents considered politicians and senior government officials to be the most responsible for money laundering and that they regularly made efforts to hide their ill-gotten money.

'€œThey usually buy property assets under the names of their relatives or other parties or save their money in bank accounts in other countries,'€ Ivan said.

Coordinating Minister for Politics, Legal and Security Affairs Luhut Binsar Panjaitan acknowledged that law enforcement against money laundering was weak.

'€œWe already have many laws, even too many, but the hardest thing to do is to implement the laws. It'€™s also hard to synchronize interests among institutions. That'€™s why it'€™s hard for the government to make decisions,'€ Luhut said.

Luhut has consequently instructed the KPK to punish government officials who were found guilty of owning fat bank accounts by ordering them to pay a 15 percent tax in addition to a penalty.

'€œIt might be better than just letting them go free,'€ Luhut said.

Meanwhile, the KPK'€™s acting deputy chairman, Johan Budi, said that his institution will improve its coordination with the PPATK.

'€œWe should coordinate more with the PPATK, especially on data. All this time the PPATK is one of the institutions we rely on to get some data for investigations,'€ Johan said. (foy)