AGO plans to summon Soedradjat this month
Tertiani ZB Simanjuntak and Imanuddin, The Jakarta Post, Jakarta
The Attorney General's Office plans to summon former governor of Bank Indonesia Soedradjat Djiwandono this month as a suspect in a Rp 19 trillion (US$2.1 billion) financial scandal in Bank Indonesia's liquidity support (BLBI) scheme.
Barman Zahir, spokesman for the Attorney General's Office, said on Friday that the questioning of Soedradjat would only be held after the state investigators completed their current tasks to summon witnesses in the scandal.
"The summons will probably be issued in June," he said.
Separately, an investigator in the case, who requested anonymity, told The Jakarta Post that the questioning was scheduled to be conducted in the second week of June.
Soedradjat, the son-in-law of the late economics guru Soemitro Djojohadikusumo, is currently a researcher at the Singapore-based Institute of South East Asian Studies (ISEAS) and has been staying in an apartment there with his wife for the past year.
The source said that Soedradjat was now in Jakarta.
However, Barman said, the investigators were not worried about the possibility that the suspect would escape overseas as many corruption suspects did.
"Wherever his lives, investigators believe that the suspect will not hamper the investigation," he added.
The investigators declared Soedradjat a suspect on May 7, but only announced it to the public on Thursday.
The investigators found that Soedradjat, along with his three subordinates, had abused his power by extending credit facilities to now-defunct commercial banks while he was in office between 1996 and 1998.
Three of his directors at the time, namely Heru Soepraptomo, Paul Soetopo and Hendrobudiyanto, are now facing trial on charges of breaching banking regulations by extending the loans and offering the facilities to the indebted banks.
The case is part of the BLBI scandal that, according to the Supreme Audit Agency (BPK), has caused losses to the state equivalent to billions of U.S. dollars.
The government channeled Rp 144.5 trillion in liquidity support to 48 commercial banks as an emergency measure to restore public confidence in the banks when the crisis worst hit the country in 1998 and 1999.
The Supreme Audit Agency (BPK) found later that 95 percent, or Rp 138.4 trillion, of the emergency loans had either been misused or been extended in violation of banking regulations.
The audit result revealed that the emergency loans were supposed to be used only to reimburse depositors during the bank runs, but the banks used the money for other purposes, including foreign exchange trade, lending to affiliated business groups and for repaying subordinated loans.
BPK laid the blame for the malfeasance on the extremely poor supervision of the central bank which depended too much on the banks' written reports that are often manipulated.
In a questioning session as a witness last year, Soedradjat admitted that his three subordinates neglected to impose sanctions against all banks that failed to improve their performance despite the central bank's financial support.
He said that other directors in his time were also in a similar position and had a similar responsibility to the three now standing trial.
The others include Mansjurdin Nurdin and Budiono, former finance minister in president Abdurrahman Wahid's cabinet.
However, the investigators have yet to question former members of the central bank's board of directors under Soedradjat.