Bank DKI marketing director dismissed

JAKARTA (JP): Jakarta Governor Sutiyoso fired city-owned Bank DKI marketing and credit director Siti Aisyah.

Deputy Governor of Administrative Affairs Abdul Kahfi said on Wednesday that Siti, who was appointed director in January this year, was officially dismissed from her post on May 7.

"Sutiyoso told me she was incapable of performing her duties as a director," Kahfi told The Jakarta Post.

"The city administration had permission from the central bank to fire Siti. I do not know the details (of the firing), but you can be assured the administration did a thorough job of investigating this case."

Siti, 38, was appointed in January to replace former marketing director Bassar Soetardjo. At the same time, Maman Sulasman was appointed to replace Soeharto as the bank's president.

Soeharto is still being investigated by the Jakarta Prosecutor's Office for alleged mismanagement which left the bank with at least Rp 172 billion in bad loans.

Meanwhile, Siti said she knew "nothing" about the governor's decision to fire her.

"I have not been informed that I was fired," Siti told the Post by phone.

Siti said that during the four months she held the post, she had collected evidence against high-ranking officials in the administration and Bank DKI responsible for saddling the bank with bad loans amounting to Rp 318 billion, not Rp 172 billion as officially announced.

"I have that information with me. Once I get legal protection, I will reveal all of it... I have no fear of anything anymore," she said.

Siti said that during her tenure as marketing and credit director she had prevented the bank from disbursing loans a number of times due to the large amount of bad loans the bank already was carrying.

"I have hard copies to prove my rejection of proposals to disburse loans. The administration was quite open in showing its disapproval of my work," Siti said. "Now, I've been fired."

Siti said she had taken the copies to the administration's bank monitoring team, chaired by Sutiyoso.

She said the bank neglected the nation's banking regulations and procedures in disbursing loans.

"When a loan was disbursed, it did not bother with details like hard evidence of collateral and transparency."

She also said she had been sexually harassed by a high-ranking official at Bank DKI. She said she had reported the incident to the monitoring team.

"The complaint was ignored... now I am seeking legal advice on the matter," Siti said, giving the name of the official but asking the Post to keep it off the record.

She said that even if Sutiyoso considered her to have been officially terminated, the dismissal was not official.

"In my contract there is a clause which states that my dismissal requires my signature and a valid reason as to why I have been dismissed," she said.

"Till date, I have not signed anything and the administration has not given me any reason for the dismissal." (ylt)