Bank Mandiri officials quizzed over lending scam
Eva C. Komandjaja, The Jakarta Post/Jakarta
The Attorney General's Office questioned on Friday three officials of the giant state-owned Bank Mandiri as it aimed to speed up the investigation into alleged irregularities in the provision of more than Rp 1 trillion (US$107 million) in loans to several companies.
Deputy Attorney General for Special Crimes Sudhono Iswahyudi said that his office had also interrogated the finance director of TV broadcasting company PT Lativi Media Karya, one of the bank's debtor companies.
The office did not provide the names of the Bank Mandiri officials nor the Lativi director, but office spokesman R.J. Soehandojo later gave the initials of the three officials as WW, MA, and FE, all of whom were charged with giving credit facilities to a company called PT Siak Zamrud Pusaka.
"These (officials) are being questioned over procedures in giving credit to the company and who was really in charge or decided to give credit to the company (SZP)," Soehandojo said, but quickly added that three officials were questioned as witnesses, not suspects. The Lativi director was also questioned as a witness.
The lending scandal emerged after the Supreme Audit Agency (BPK) found irregularities in the channeling of Rp 1 trillion in loans to 24 companies. The Attorney General's Office previously said the number of debtors was 28.
Four of the 24 companies are now under intensive investigation by the office. They include PT Lativi Media Karya (LMK), and PT Siak Zamrud Pusaka (SZP). The office declined to give the names of the two other firms.
According to the BPK report, Bank Mandiri had provided credit facilities to ineligible companies.
The alleged corruption at Bank Mandiri highlights how old habits die hard in the Indonesian banking sector, which plunged into near collapse during the late 1990s financial crisis partly due to poor lending practices. The banking crisis had forced tax payers to cover the cost of the multi-billion dollar bank bailout program launched by the government in the wake of the crisis.
The Attorney General's Office, which is under pressure to thoroughly investigate the case as the public has high hopes that the current government will seriously curb the rampant corruption in this country, aims to look into the possibility that bank officials received bribes from debtor companies seeking preferential treatment.
Soehandojo said it was also possible for the Attorney General's Office to question Lativi's owner Abdul Latief (a minister during the administration of president Soeharto) and Bank Mandiri's president director E.C.W. Neloe.
"Of course we will call them (Neloe and Latief), if one of the witnesses points out that they are involved in this case," he added.
Elsewhere, Soehandojo said that the Attorney General's Office had to delay the questioning of two former Bank Mandiri officials identified as AMW (now working at Bank Permata) and SPM (now at Bank Negara Indonesia) because they were still on an overseas trip.
The office has previously questioned four Bank Mandiri directors as witnesses. They are MST (director of corporate banking), WAM (director of risk management), KL (director of finance and strategy) and OSA (director of consumer banking).
Soehandojo also added that the office would conduct an investigation at Bank Mandiri's headquarters on Monday and would also seize documents related to the credit facilities given to the 24 companies.
"The team is also assigned to list all the assets of the 24 companies," he said.