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Analysis: Sri Mulyani battles to defend integrity and ministry reputation
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Finance Minister Sri Mulyani gives a statement concerning the judicial review of Law No. 11/2016 on tax amnesty at the Constitutional Court in Jakarta on Sept. 20, 2016. (JP/Dhoni Setiawan)
F
inance Minister Sri Mulyani Indrawati has been coming under attack with allegations of massive corruption or fraud, not by her but by staffers in her ministry. These charges are not only hurting her personal reputation, but they also undermine the credibility and the public trust of the Finance Ministry, which oversees the Taxation Directorate General.
At least Sri Mulyani has overcome the most serious allegation, first broached to the public by Coordinating Political, Legal and Security Affairs Minister Mahfud MD about Rp 300 trillion (US$20 billion) in “suspicious transactions” at the Finance Ministry.
Sri Mulyani quickly went on the offensive to challenge Mahfud and the Financial Transaction Reports and Analysis Center (PPATK), which had fed the information, demanding them to explain, give details and a breakdown of how they have come up with such a fantastic figure. She said the sum never appeared in any of the PPATK reports that she received each year detailing its findings of transactions requiring further investigation by her ministry.
Mahfud and PPTAK have since backtracked on their statements. Mahfud said these were “money laundering” rather than corruption. The PPATK said the figure was the sum of unexplained transactions from its reports between 2009 and 2023 sent to the ministry. Where they differ is that while Sri Mulyani said she had resolved most of these issues, the PPATK said many of them had remained unanswered.
In a joint press conference after their meeting on March 13, Sri Mulyani said she would follow up on the PPATK reports and asked Mahfud to help her in cleaning up the ministry.
The Rp 300 trillion figure is now widely circulating on social media as well as the allegations of corruption within the Finance Ministry, with Sri Mulyani as the central figure in this scandal. Few doubt her integrity given her impeccable record as a tough and disciplined finance minister, but many say she may have lost control over her staff’s behavior.
The claim of large-scale suspicious transactions quickly caught on the public attention as it came amid growing public scrutiny of the extravagant lifestyles of the family of several officers of the Taxation Directorate General and the Customs Directorate General both overseen by Sri Mulyani.
