Made up of 15 members of parliament's Commission II on legal and internal affairs, and Commission IV on infrastructure, Team 27's brief is simple - pressure authorities to recover lost state assets and to arrest powerful individuals suspected of involvement in corruption cases involving Pertamina.

The creation of Team 27 was the result of the failure of an existing parliamentary committee of inquiry to pressure the authorities to do something about the corruption cases that have plagued the integrity of the state-owned oil and gas company. The committee was formed in 2001.

"We hope the team can start working this week so that the attorney general and the police can also start with the cases, because we want to push them to resolve this as soon as possible," said Team 27's Patrialis Akbar in an interview with the Indonesian The Jakarta Post daily.

However, Akbar was adamant that Team 27 would not replace the current special committee. "[It] would follow up the results of its work," said Akbar.

Up to now, the special committee has uncovered 11 cases of corruption, collusion and nepotism, which had inflicted losses of US$1.7 billion on the state but has been unable to bring many of the accused to justice due to alleged corruption on the part of the Indonesian Attorney General's Office.