Attorney General urged to speed up BRI inquiry

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)