BI's accountability

Amendment of law No. 23/1999 on Bank Indonesia (BI) has been delayed for a couple of year mainly due to BI's board of governors' insistence in rejecting the Minister of Finance's proposal to set up a supervisory board which would oversee the performance of this country's central bank.

The Jakarta Post of Oct. 14 edition quoted the minister of finance as saying that the importance of setting up a supervisory board of governors was in a bid to strike a balance between the central bank's independence and its accountability.

What stuns us was BI's response that the plan be postponed by at least five years. This means that the existing law which puts the board of governors' accountability almost untouchable, would not be shifted for at least five years.

It is quite a pity that an independent and prestigious institution in monetary sector like BI could not lead the country to be more accountable and transparent to the public. Moreover as this institution is now under Burhanuddin Abdullah's governorship, a person who once had worked at IMF headquarters for years, could have led his institution to be the champion of good governance.

Keeping this mind, one may guess that the BI's rejection to endorse the Minister of Finance's plan would end up in financial misappropriation, and therefore the country's program of eradicating corruption leads to nowhere and may prolong for at least five years, if it could ever be started.

M. RUSDI Jakarta