AGO plans to summon Soedradjat this month
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.