Jakarta. The Indonesian Ombudsman told reporters on Thursday that it suspected the Commodity Futures Trading Agency or Bappebti of at least three types of maladministration in regard to the delayed crypto bourse, but the probe is still ongoing to this day.

The Ombudsman is currently looking into the complaint filed by Digital Futures Exchange (DFX) which has applied for the operatorship of the would-be crypto bourse in Indonesia. 

Over the past weeks, the Ombudsman has called government agencies in the financial sector, as well as the Finance Ministry for questioning. The heads of the Indonesian Crypto Asset Traders Association and the Indonesian Blockchain Association had also given their statements to the Ombudsman.

“There are three alleged forms of maladministration in this case. The number may increase or even decrease as the inquiry goes,” Ombudsman Yeka Hendra Fatika told a press conference in Jakarta on Thursday. 

The first alleged maladministration revolves around the Bappebti taking an unreasonable amount of time to declare the status of the DFX’s permit. The second is on the alleged non-conformance with the procedures as DFX’s status remains unclear. Last but not least is the alleged abuse of power. 

“[Bappebti allegedly] uses its power to implement procedures that are not in accordance with the existing regulations. So we will try to look into these three allegations of maladministration,” Yeka said.

The Ombudsman had summoned the Bappebti three times over the past two weeks. 

Bappebti acting head Didid Noordiatmoko, however, has always been a no-show and always had the commodity futures examiner attending the summons on his behalf. The next summon for the Bappebti head is on Feb. 21. According to Yeka, the upcoming summons would mark the third time that the Ombudsman had tried to request the presence of the regulatory body’s chief.

“If someone fails to answer our summons three times in a row without a plausible reason, the Ombudsman has the right to ask the police force to bring the said person to us,” Yeka said.

“It is important for the government agencies to send a truly competent person or the person that the Ombudsman has requested. So if we ask for the Bappebti chief’s presence, please do so,” Yeka told the conference while adding that his absence could lead to the investigation taking longer than expected.

The Ombudsman plans on calling the state-owned clearing house Kliring Berjangka Indonesia to their headquarters on Friday. They will also summon Trade Minister Zulkifli Hasan next week.

“The minister said he would launch the crypto bourse in June 2023. We would like to know why he made such a statement and if there is a roadmap. And what about the policies and the regulations?” Yeka said. 

The government initially planned to roll out a crypto bourse in 2021, but then decided to push back the launch date to 2022. The bourse has yet to take shape to this day. DFX applied for a commodity futures exchange permit in Oct. 2021.

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