JAKARTA: A team from Indonesia’s anti-graft body has raided the country’s central bank headquarters over a probe about the misuse of funds, officials said Tuesday. Southeast Asia’s largest economy has arrested scores of public officials for graft in recent years, and corruption remains rampant despite the government’s pledge to end the practice. The Corruption Eradication Commission (KPK) in September said it was investigating the alleged mishandling of corporate social responsibility funds by Bank Indonesia (BI).

“Indeed, there was a raid by our investigators last night at the BI office” in the capital Jakarta, KPK spokesman Tessa Mahardhika Sugiarto told AFP Tuesday. The central bank also confirmed the raid took place late Monday and that it was related to the alleged graft case. “KPK came to complete the investigation process regarding the allegations of the distributed CSR funds. BI respects and leaves the legal process to KPK according to the procedures, and we support the investigation,” BI spokesman Ramdan Denny Prakoso said in a statement Tuesday.

The KPK alleged a portion of the 2023 CSR funds of the central bank and the Indonesian financial services authority have been siphoned and misused for personal gain. No suspects have been announced, and the graft body did not say how much of the funds were misused. Central bank governor Perry Warjiyo said it supported the investigation process but denied the allegations at the time.

“We assured you that our CSR and social programs have strong governance,” he told a press conference in September. In November last year, police named KPK chief Firli Bahuri as a suspect for extortion and receiving gifts or gratuities in legal dealings with the agriculture ministry from 2020 to 2023. In 2023 Transparency International’s Corruption Perceptions Index ranked Indonesia at 115 out of 180 countries.- AFP