BI to announce Bank Mega investigation results next week

JAKARTA. Bank Indonesia (BI) will need one more week to complete its investigation into the alleged cases of fraud at Bank Mega that involved billions of rupiah in funds from oil and gas firm Elnusa and the Batubara regency administration, a senior official says.

BI governor Darmin Nasution said Wednesday that the central bank’s investigations were still underway. “It may need several more days and then we will announce the results. We are coordinating with the police,” he said after his opening remarks at the Indonesia Banking Expo 2011 at the Jakarta Convention Center.

Darmin said he considered fraud something that could happen in any sector of business, including banks, therefore he urged banks to optimize their internal control to minimize cases of fraud because “it will be difficult to 100 percent eliminate such cases.”

Elnusa previously said that Rp 111 billion stored in Bank Mega time deposit accounts was missing, followed by the bank’s statement that there was Rp 80 billion in suspicious transactions from Batubara regency of North Sumatra’s account in Bank Mega.

The two cases were still being investigated by the Police, with some suspects secured and some taken into custody. (Esther Samboh/The Jakarta Post)