BI to boost supervisory staff to curb scandals
BI to boost supervisory staff to curb scandals
Abdul Khalik and Fabiola Desy Unidjaja, The Jakarta Post,
Jakarta
Bank Indonesia Governor Burhanuddin Abdullah said on Friday that
the central bank would boost the number of its banking
supervisory staff as part of efforts to help prevent banking
scandals in the future.
He explained that because of the limited number of staff the
central bank could not monitor the operation of branch offices of
banks.
"Looking ahead, the central bank will intensify its
supervisory work. We'll recruit more staff. Hopefully, there will
be no more scandals," Burhanuddin said.
The plan came as authorities are investigating the Bank BNI
scandal, which centers on the disbursement of export loans to a
number of companies. The loans, amounting to Rp 1.7 trillion
(US$202.4 million) were channeled by BNI's Kebayoran Baru branch
office in South Jakarta, which did not make a proper credit
assessment, as it turned out that the borrowers had submitted
fake documents.
The bank, the country's second-largest in terms of assets,
will suffer financial losses worth millions of dollars from this
scandal.
There have now arisen calls for the government to dismiss the
board of directors of the state-owned bank, although the scandal
emerged from a branch office.
State Minister of State Enterprises Laksamana Sukardi
confirmed on Friday that a shareholders meeting will be held next
month to decide on a reshuffle at the top management of BNI.
He said the government would recruit new people to the board
of directors, including from outside the bank.
Meanwhile, the police said they would summon every witness
related to the BNI scandal including top politicians and their
campaign managers mentioned in the mass media.
National Police chief of detectives Erwin Mappaseng said on
Friday there was a possibility of summoning a campaign manager of
one of the presidential candidates from a leading political
party.
"Everyone will be questioned. It's just a question of priority
as to whom we should call first," said Erwin.
Rumors have been rife that three presidential candidates from
the Golkar Party allegedly received money from individuals
implicated in the lending scandal.
Rumors also say that a campaign manager from one of the
candidates received the money and used it to finance the
construction of a house.
"We shall check the house after we've questioned the person,"
said Erwin.
He also said that the police had detained director of PT
Binekatama Pasifik, Titik Pristiwanti, for further questioning.
Binekatama is one of a number of companies that allegedly
benefited from the BNI loans.
"Titik has been interrogated intensively here since yesterday
and we issued a detention letter this morning," said Erwin.
Police can detain a suspect for 24 hours only. Police have to
issue a letter so they can hold a suspect after the time limit.
Including Titik, police have managed to arrest nine of 12
suspects so far in the case. The suspects that have been held in
police custody are BNI Kebayoran Baru branch head Kusadiyono, BNI
Kebayoran Baru foreign customer service head Edi Santoso, Richard
Kountul of PT Metrantara, Judi Basso of PT Bassomasindo, Aprilla
Widharta of PT Pan Kipros, Adrian Lumowa of PT Usaha Esa
Indonesia, Olla Agam of PT Gramarindo Mega Indonesia and Jeffry
Basso of PT Tri Rannu Caraka.
Two other suspects still at large are an owner of Gramarindo
Group, Maria Pauline Lumowa, and Adrian Waworuntu. Meanwhile, the
operations manager of BNI Kebayoran Baru branch, Nirwan Ali, has
been questioned but not held in police custody.