F

ollowing the resignation of PT Freeport Indonesia (Freeport) president director Maroef Sjamsoeddin, House of Representatives Deputy Speaker Fahri Hamzah plans to set up an inquiry to investigate irregularities in the local subsidiary of the giant US gold and copper mining firm.

Fahri, a Prosperous Justice Party (PKS) politician, claimed that Freeport had been involved in high-level mischief because before Maroef'€™s resignation, there was last year'€™s resignation of the company chairman James Moffett.

'€œWe should take note of these phenomena and conduct a comprehensive investigation [into Freeport], particularly in regards to its management systems,'€ Fahri said after attending an event at the headquarters of the Supreme Audit Agency (BPK) in Jakarta on Tuesday.

Discourse about the establishment of such a team became hot talk at the House last year following the controversy that prompted the resignation of Setya Novanto from his post at the House. At first, the planned inquiry aimed to uncover any political maneuvering behind Setya'€™s alleged attempt to strike a deal between the government and the company.

Freeport rebuffed speculations surrounding Maroef'€™s withdrawal, saying that his contract had simply expired and so he had tendered his resignation.

The House'€™s ethics council (MKD) held a round of hearings last year to examine a report from Energy and Mineral Resources Minister Sudirman Said on Setya'€™s alleged misconduct in negotiations to extend Freeport'€™s work contract.

Sudirman attached recorded conversations between Setya, Maroef and businessman Reza Chalid to support his allegation that Setya had tried to wrangle shares from the company to secure the extension.

Maroef provided the taped conversations, arguing that he suspected that there had been a conspiracy to try and exploit the company.

BPK member Achsanul Qosasi said that it was possible for his agency to probe Freeport by auditing the royalties of the mining company.

'€œIf they want us to audit its royalties, sure, we can do that,'€ Achsanul said.

Separately, various lawmakers expressed contempt for the slow progress of the Attorney General'€™s Office (AGO) in investigating Setya'€™s alleged corruption.

Members of the MKD, who also sit on Commission III overseeing legal affairs, ganged up on the AGO for failing to explain the nature of Setya'€™s offense. This included Gerindra'€™s Supratman and Sufmi Dasco Ahmad and the Golkar Party'€™s Adies Kadir.

Syarifuddin Sudding of the Hanura Party asked the AGO to be forthcoming about whether or not they had enough evidence to press forward with the case.

'€œIf there [isn'€™t enough to prove the allegations] then stop the investigation, because it has caused too much disturbance,'€ Sudding said.

In response to his critics, Attorney General Muhammad Prasetyo resisted pressure to reveal any details of the ongoing investigation, deflecting allegations of political partisanship.

'€œWe do what we can and we focus on what we can do first. It would be uncalled for if we revealed the [specifics of this] case in this forum, since it is still under investigation,'€ Prasetyo told the House'€™s Commission III in a meeting on Tuesday.

'€œGive us time to deal with it. You may proceed if we have enough evidence '€” I am certain that it exists.'€

AGO junior attorney general for special crimes Arminsyah told reporters that prosecutors would continue to reach out to Reza for testimony, despite an absence of leads.

He said the investigation could theoretically progress to the next stage without Reza as the AGO had verified the recording with an expert from the Bandung Institute of Technology (ITB).