Bapindo trial exposes weaknesses in procedures<\/p>\n
JAKARTA (JP): A former director of Bank Pembangunan Indonesia
\n(Bapindo) acknowledged yesterday that a number of their decision
\nmaking processes were frought with flaws, thus exposing it to a
\nmajor scam last year.<\/p>\n
Towil Heryoto in a court testimony yesterday said that a
\nmeeting of the board of directors produced an agreement to
\ndisburse huge loans to businessman Eddy Tansil without bothering
\nto check some of the finer details.<\/p>\n
Tansil, who is already in jail in connection with the Rp 1.3
\ntrillion ($620 million) scam, cashed in on his Bapindo loans
\nwithout ever signing a single contract for the loans.<\/p>\n
Towil confessed in the trial of a fellow former director
\nSubekti Ismaun at the South Jakarta district court yesterday that
\nsome of the board of directors meetings were often treated as a
\nmere formality and that the members assumed that the finer
\ndetails had been taken care of by the staff.<\/p>\n
In the case of Tansil's loans, "we did not wait for the loan
\nagreements to arrive since they could have taken a long time and
\nwe did not want to make the clients wait," he said.<\/p>\n
Towil and Subekti, two former directors, are being charged
\nseparately for allowing the Bapindo debacle to occur.<\/p>\n
Tansil, the owner of the Golden Key Group, is now serving a
\n17-year jail term and has been ordered to pay Rp 500 billion in
\nrestitution fees. The deputy manager of Bapindo's Jakarta branch,
\nwho personally handled Tansil's account, has been convicted and
\nsentenced to nine years imprisonment.<\/p>\n
Tansil obtained the loans from Bapindo between 1989 and 1993
\nand managed to personally cash in on most of them although the
\ncredits were originally intended to pay for the equipment of a
\npetrochemical project he was building.<\/p>\n
Towil told the court that the Bapindo Jakarta branch was
\nsupposed to have taken care of the details of Tansil's loan
\napplications, including securing the credit agreement.<\/p>\n
Formalities<\/p>\n
Towil acknowledged that the loan agreements were signed only
\nearly this year, or four years after they were approved by the
\nboard of directors.<\/p>\n
Judge Soedjatman, who presided at Subekti's trial, queried
\nwhether the board of directors meetings were mere formalities.<\/p>\n
Towil, in reply, simply admitted that the loans should never
\nhave been approved in the absence of a credit agreement.<\/p>\n
Two Bapindo staffers, Heru Santoso and Usman Boute, also
\ntestified during the hearing yesterday.<\/p>\n
Heru, who was one of the staff in Bapindo's head office,
\nconfirmed that the board of directors held two separate meetings
\non June 2 to discuss the future of Tansil's loans.<\/p>\n
He said the afternoon meeting overruled the decision made in
\nthe morning about cutting the bank's losses with Tansil's
\ndealings. Heru said there were no minutes of the meeting.<\/p>\n
He also confirmed that three of the five directors were
\npresent at the meeting, thus fulfilling the quorum. (02)<\/p>",
"url": "https:\/\/jawawa.id\/newsitem\/bapindo-trial-exposes-weaknesses-in-procedures-1447893297",
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