Money Laundering Still Rampant

Senin, 2 Februari 2009 - 15:32 WIB

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VIVAnews - The ineffective implementation of a single identity number for each Indonesian citizen causes money laundering to become a large problem in Indonesia. The perpetrators often use different identification documents in opening bank accounts, purchasing assets and investing capital in financial market, said Head of Indonesia Financial Transaction Reports and Analysis Centre (PPATK), Yunus Husein, on Saturday, Jan 31.

According to him, if every Indonesian citizen owns a single identity number, money laundering can be anticipated and dealt with. "The government must be strict in confiscating and returning assets so that it may be used to contribute to the country's development," he said.

In the past few years, the number of suspicious financial transaction reports (LKTM) that financial service providers submitted to PPATK has sharply increased. In 2002, monthly LKTM averaged 10.3. While in 2006, it was up to 290 reports per month. In 2008, the reports reached 869 per month. "Daily reports of suspicious financial transaction reached 29 in average," said Husein.

The suspicious reports were mainly from banking, foreign currency and securities companies. Banking sector is on top position with 69.1 percent, followed by foreign currency companies with 19.7 percent and securities companies with 17.16 percent.

Corruption Eradication Commission (KPK) Deputy Director of Prevention Division, Haryono Umar, explained that to minimize money laundering, KPK intended to improve state administrators' obedience in reporting their wealth.

So far, Wealth Report of State Administrators working on judicative and executive institutions are still low compared to those working in legislative institutions, State-Owned Enterprises (SOEs) or Local Government-Owned Enterprises (BUMD).

Up until January of this year, the number of reports from executive institution reached 85.4 percent while those from judicative institution reached 70.29 percent. In addition, reports from legislative institution reached 99.5 percent while State and Local Government-Owned Enterprises reached 96.49 percent.