BI official accused of malfeasance
BI official accused of malfeasance
BANDUNG, West Java: The Indonesian Corruption Watch (ICW) will
file on Friday a report to the Supreme Audit Agency (BPK) on
alleged malfeasance by a Bank Indonesia (BI) official in the
supplying of paper for the Rp 1,000 and Rp 5,000 bank notes.
"After a month-long investigation we have found evidence that
a Korean company had won the bid to be the supplier of the paper
when it was opened for tender in 1999. However, it was opened for
tender again and PT Pura Barutaman was declared the winner by
Aulia Pohan, a central bank director," ICW coordinator Teten told
reporters on Wednesday.
PT Pura was awarded the right to supply all the paper needed
for the Rp 5,000 bank notes and 70 percent of the paper needed
for the Rp 1,000 notes. The other 30 percent was awarded to the
Koran company.
Teten said it was the state-owned bank note printing company
Perum Percetakan Uang Republik Indonesia (Peruri) which had the
full authority to arrange the tender for the supply of paper for
the rupiah bank notes, he said.
The contract won by PT Pura Barutaman was worth around US$7
million, Teten said.
"Aulia Pohan's intervention was wrong. He also has to be
responsible for the shortage of the Rp 5,000 and Rp 1,000 notes
as the rough and creased inferior quality paper supplied by PT
Bura Barutaman was rejected by the printing machine," Teten said.
"Moreover, we also found proof that PT Pura along with BI's
Employee Welfare Foundation had set up a company to print bank
notes. The company had asked for loans from Bank Niaga and
Standard Chattered, saying that they needed them to buy a bank
note printing machine," Teten said.
The machine was reportedly imported from Taiwan but when it
reached Singapore, its country of origin was changed to Germany,
he said.
"ICW has two different bills as evidence and when we traced
them back to Germany, the company whose label was on the printing
machine turned out to be a producer of agricultural devices,"
Teten explained.(25/edt)