•    HOME   
•    NEWS   
•    BUSINESS   
•    INTERNATIONAL   
•    TECH   
•    SPORTS   
•    LIFE & TIMES   
•    OPINION   
•    MY JAKARTA   
•    BLOGS   

In an increasingly hostile political environment, a number of lawmakers on the House of Representatives special committee investigating the Bank Century bailout are implying that bailout money illegally ended up in Democratic Party coffers last year.

However, Democratic leaders dismiss the charge as untrue and the Financial Transaction Reports and Analysis Center said it cannot be proved.

Some opposition members on the committee have said they expect the Supreme Audit Agency (BPK) to help prove their allegations involving 10 depositors who allegedly received Rp 1.87 trillion ($200 million) during the rescue of the lender.

“We hope that the documents given by the audit agency can assist us in tracing suspicious transactions,” said committee member Hendrawan Supratikno, a member of the Indonesian Democratic Party of Struggle (PDI-P).

After gaining approval from the South Jakarta District Court, the committee on Thursday officially copied 129 confidential BPK documents that the agency used in its final audit of the Rp 6.7 trillion bailout.

House Speaker Marzuki Alie, the secretary general of last year’s campaign team of President Susilo Bambang Yudhoyono and Vice President Boediono, dismissed the allegations, saying all donations had been screened by the General Elections Commission (KPU).

“Anyone who donated to us was accountable and has been audited, even if the donor was a depositor at Bank Century,” Marzuki said.

Now split along party lines, the investigation is entering deeply sensitive political territory as the stakes rise for all parties. But it will apparently be difficult to prove any of the allegations made, and relations between Yudhoyono’s Democratic Party and its supposed allies in the ruling coalition have come close to a breaking point.

The Golkar Party, which chairs the special committee, has openly called for the dismissal of reformist Finance Minister Sri Mulyani Indrawati, which so far the president seems to have rejected.

The bare-knuckles politics of the investigation — which is not a legal proceeding — has been widely accused of holding the truth at ransom in favor of back-door deal-making at the highest political levels.

Hendrawan, however, tried to paint a picture of a fact-based probe. He said the 10 depositors in question were expected to appear in the BPK documents.

“We will compare this with the data received from the PPATK,” he said, referring to the Financial Transaction Reports and Analysis Center.

Hendrawan said the National Police had earlier said there were 11 suspicious transactions totaling Rp 1.87 trillion. “We want to examine whether the profiles of the depositors in the data from the BPK and police are similar because the total amount is similar,” he said.

Akbar Faizal, a member of the opposition People’s Conscience Party (Hanura), said the special committee was investigating other allegedly suspicious donations to political candidates last year.

Akbar said insurance company PT Asuransi Jaya Proteksi, previously identified as a Bank Century depositor, was listed as having donated a total of Rp 4.65 billion to Yudhoyono and Boediono in June.

Another account belonged to Amiruddin Rustan, a Makassar-based businessman, according to the PPATK. In one transaction, Rp 66 billion flowed into a Bank Century account under his name between Nov. 6, 2008, and Aug. 10. On the campaign contributions list, a PT Rustan Consulting is named as having donated Rp 500 million to the Yudhoyono-Boediono team on July 7.

PPATK head Yunus Husein confirmed to the Jakarta Globe on Thursday that PT AJP and Amiruddin Rustan, as Bank Century depositors, received part of the bailout funds.

There is no evidence, however, to prove that the otherwise legal donations to Yudhoyono’s campaign were linked to the bailout funds.

Yunus said he did not know anything about these campaign contributions.

“People can make donations. According to regulations, a person can donate up to Rp 1 billion. If it is a firm, then it can give up to Rp 5 billion.”