Attorney General urged to speed up BRI inquiry
JAKARTA (JP): The Indonesian Corruption Watch (ICW) has called on the Attorney General's Office to speed up an investigation of alleged corruption in the state Bank Rakyat Indonesia (BRI).
The coordinator of the independent corruption watchdog, Teten Masduki, said on Friday that evidence of corruption recently presented to the Attorney General's Office by the ICW and the Movement of Concerned Citizens for State Assets (Gempita) had yet to be acted on.
"It seems that the Attorney General's Office is reluctant to investigate the allegations of corruption in the bank," he said in a press briefing which was also attended by members of the Committee for Bank Rakyat Indonesia (KRBRI).
Former senior BRI executives who sit on the committee revealed further evidence of corrupt dealings at the bank during Friday's briefing.
Teten acknowledged that BRI president Djoko Santoso Moeljono and businessmen The Ning King and Djoko Soegiarto Chandra were questioned last November in connection with an Rp 572.2 billion (US$76 million) loan scandal, but said that no further action had been taken.
The Ning King owns the widely diversified Argo Manunggal Group and Djoko Soegiarto owns the Mulia Group.
"It seems that Attorney General Andi Muhammad Ghalib is too busy buying new BMWs," Teten said referring to Ghalib's controversial decision to buy brand new BMWs for all his deputies.
The two were questioned after Gempita filed a report with the attorney general alleging irregularities in BRI loans to Ning King.
Teten said the cases involving the two businessmen were the tip of the iceberg and charged that BRI had turned its back on the cooperatives and small business ventures it was set up to help and had instead channeled most of its capital into giant business groups.
He said that as of October last year, BRI had disbursed loans worth over Rp 15.6 trillion to giant conglomerates, while loans to agricultural and plantation ventures had reached a mere Rp 1.5 trillion and loans to cooperatives and small businesses were Rp 6.3 trillion.
Teten said that 53.7 percent (Rp 8.42 trillion) of the loans disbursed to conglomerates were now non-performing. In comparison, non-performing loans to agricultural and plantation ventures and to cooperatives and small businesses make up only 19 percent and 20 percent of the total loans to each of these sectors.
The watchdog also found that BRI had issued loans exceeding the legal lending limit to 11 business groups, including Argo Manunggal.
Teten questioned why BRI's president had authorized these loans given the conglomerates' poor track records of repaying their debts.
"Those doubtful loans (to 11 business groups) could inflict enormous losses on BRI," Teten said.
BRI executives could not be reach for comment when contacted by The Jakarta Post on Friday. (gis)