The BLBI task force, established two years ago to recover the embezzled assets through litigation, has so far recovered nearly 4,000 hectares of property across the country, valued at some Rp 30.6 trillion (US$2 million), from an undisclosed number of people. This makes up about 30 percent of the estimated Rp 110 trillion in state losses from the scandal.

“The task force will continue to intensify efforts to recover state assets from borrowers of [BLBI funds] and ensure that [nobody] holds state assets [unlawfully],” task force head Rionald Silaban, who is also state assets director general at the Finance Ministry, said on Tuesday.

The government handed over some 226.8 hectares of the land, worth Rp 1.8 trillion, to three provincial administrations – West Java, Banten and Palembang – and 14 ministries and state institutions, including the National Police.

West Java is planning to use one of the reallocated plots, of an undisclosed size, to build an ecotourism center, while the police are considering building or extending a police hospital on 9 hectares of recovered land in an undisclosed location.

During the 1997-1998 Asian financial crisis, Bank Indonesia (BI) disbursed funds to help banks meet liquidity needs to restore public confidence in the banking sector following a series of bank runs and a major slump in the value of the rupiah. It was later discovered that 95 percent of the Rp 144.5 trillion in BLBI funds disbursed to 48 commercial banks had been embezzled.

The Corruption Eradication Commission (KPK) has sent a number of people to prison on charges related to the scandal, but the recovery of the stolen state assets, particularly money that was converted into other types of assets or moved abroad, has been slow.

Read also: Government starts seizing assets from BLBI obligors

The government established the task force and began recovering BLBI assets through civil litigation in April 2021, shortly after the KPK dropped its criminal investigation into the scandal following a 2019 Supreme Court ruling that acquitted one of key suspects, former Indonesian Bank Restructuring Agency (IBRA) chairman Syafruddin Arsyad Temenggung.

The court found that Syafruddin’s issuance of a debt discharge letter did not constitute a criminal act. The letter released borrowers from their obligation to repay government loans taken out under the BLBI scheme.

The task force is scheduled to submit its final report on the BLBI asset recovery process to President Joko “Jokowi” Widodo by October before it disbands in December, according to Rionald.

But Coordinating Political, Legal and Security Affairs Minister Mahfud MD hinted on Tuesday that the government might extend the mandate of the task force beyond 2023 to hunt for the remaining 70 percent of the looted assets.

He warned that the government could bar people who refused to return the assets from going abroad or freeze their bank accounts.

Read also: Govt forms BLBI asset recovery task force after KPK drops probe

While the task force hunts for BLBI assets, the government has been pushing for deliberation on the asset forfeiture bill in the House of Representatives. The proposed legislation would allow authorities to confiscate allegedly ill-gotten assets without a criminal conviction.

Jokowi sent the draft of the bill and a letter, dated May 4, to the House leadership asking for it to be immediately discussed in the legislature.

The President has repeatedly expressed his support for the bill, but it remains to be seen if the House will act on his instructions.

The Indonesian Democratic Party of Struggle (PDI-), to which Jokowi belongs, may have some reservations about the bill, with House speaker Puan Maharani of PDI-P yet to announce when the legislature will begin the discussion and a lawmaker flatly rejecting Mahfud's appeal for support in March.

The asset forfeiture bill has been languishing for more than two presidential terms after it was dropped from the House's priority legislation list in 2012, despite renewed urgency after the Susilo Bambang Yudhoyono administration cleaned house at the Finance Ministry’s corrupt taxation directorate general.