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Satpol PP officers questioned for withdrawing up to US$2M at ATM while balances were unchanged
Some of the officers had been made non-active as of Monday while the police carried out their investigation.
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A transaction is carried out at an ATM. (Shutterstock/File)
T
welve Jakarta Public Order Agency (Satpol PP) officers have been accused of stealing up to Rp 32 billion (US$2.27 million) from city-owned Bank DKI after they kept withdrawing cash while noticing that their account balances remained unchanged after carrying out transactions for over three months.
West Jakarta Satpol PP head Tamo Sijabat confirmed an officer under the unit, identified as M, had admitted wrongdoing and had been summoned by the Jakarta Police for questioning.
Aside from M, the 12 officers implicated in the case include those who worked in the South Jakarta and East Jakarta units, the agency confirmed.
Prior to being summoned by the police, the agency had also opened its own investigation into the case by questioning the alleged perpetrators, Jakarta Satpol PP Agency head Arifin said.
He said the officers confirmed that they had withdrawn money from ATM Bersama linked to Bank DKI.
"Based on the information that I received from them, they withdrew money from the ATM but later realized that the balance in their accounts remained unchanged. So they [withdrew] again,” he said as quoted by kompas.com.
"It’s possible that they were just confused, so that’s why they continued [to withdraw money] over and over again," he added.
The officers reportedly kept withdrawing cash between May and August this year until the bank noticed irregular activity that caused losses of about Rp 32 billion, tempo.co reported.
He, however, refuted allegations that the officers had committed money laundering or corruption.
Arifin instead questioned Bank DKI's security system, which allowed such incidents to happen, and why the bank had only reported the irregularities months after the activity took place.
"Why is [Bank DKI] making a fuss now? Also, I question their security system. [The officers] received their salaries through Bank DKI, so they withdrew cash but their balances remained unchanged," he said.
Arifin, however, asserted that he was ready to terminate the 12 officers should they be proven guilty of criminal activity.
Some of the officers had been made non-active as of Monday while the police carried out their investigation.
“Some of the officers have been summoned and said they were willing to return the money to Bank DKI,” he said.
Separately, Bank DKI corporate secretary Herry Djufraini said in a statement that the case did not pertain to theft and had not affected other accounts.
He also said bank services remained normal and that there were no issues with the bank’s security system.
"When the case emerged, we immediately coordinated with the police," he said.
