Indonesia's former audit chief named graft suspect

Anti-graft officials say the former chief of Indonesia's state audit agency is a suspect in a multimillion-dollar corruption case.

The head of the Corruption Eradication Commission, Abraham Samad, said Monday that Hadi Poernomo allegedly abused his authority, resulting in a USD 32.7 million loss to the state while serving as director general of taxation between 2002 and 2004.

The announcement came on Poernomo's last day as chief of the Supreme Audit Agency. He retired today after leading the agency since 2009.

Samad said Poernomo approved measures requested by Bank Central Asia, Indonesia's largest private bank, allowing it to avoid a total of $498 million in taxes.
 

Indonesia is plagued by corruption involving senior officials and high-ranking members of political parties.