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FBI Says Large American Companies Suspected of Paying Graft in Indonesia
Made Arya Kencana | May 12, 2011

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fanelli
9:41pm May 12, 2011

It sure is going to be hard for international companies to compete here... not being allowed to issue bribes is like doing your business with your hands tied behind your back. Does the law make a provision for "extortion" by public officials. Sometimes people/companies are forced to give bribes or face being shutout of the process.

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Nusa Dua, Bali. Several listed US companies with operations in Indonesia were involved in bribery, an official of the US Federal Bureau of Investigation said on Wednesday.

“There are cases that involve companies from our country in Indonesia,” Gary Johnson, head of the FBI’s antigraft department, said on the sidelines of a two-day conference on combating bribery in international business transactions in Nusa Dua, Bali.

However, Johnson declined to name the companies. He said laws in the United States prohibited revealing bribery suspects before they were charged.

“They are companies that are listed in the US stock market,” he said.

Johnson said the cases are being handled by the legal attache at the US Embassy in Jakarta and in cooperation with the Corruption Eradication Commission (KPK).

Chandra Hamzah, deputy chairman of the KPK, said the authority to investigate cases involving US companies “lay fully in the hands of the FBI.”

He also declined to give further details, saying: “In line with the laws governing the FBI, cases under investigation cannot be disclosed to the public and therefore cannot be divulged [here].”

Chandra said one of the outcomes of the conference was an agreement between all participating countries that regulations related to anticorruption efforts should be simplified so that the cases could be processed faster and more efficiently.

“Cooperation in corruption eradication sometimes deal with the bureaucracy of other countries where the procedures and regulations are different. Therefore we agreed to simplify them,” Chandra said.

Gunther Puhm, a delegate from Germany, agreed that streamlining regulations would boost cooperation between countries, enabling them to work faster and more efficiently on graft cases.

“We will always answer the telephone and the next morning we will be ready with the competent officials who are able to provide the necessary information,” Puhm said.

Gregory A. Coleman from the FBI’s international corruption unit, cited a memorandum of understanding with the KPK as evidence that the two agencies were pursuing similar goals.

Present at the conference were representatives of law enforcement from the G-20, OECD, APEC and Asian Development Bank, as well as national and foreign observers.