Finance ministry official accused of abusing power

The Jakarta Post, Jakarta

A number of staff members at the Directorate General for State Credit and Auction of State Assets have urged Minister of Finance Boediono to dismiss director general Karsono Suryowibowo for alleged abuse of power resulting in losses to the state.

The employees have sent a letter of complaint regarding Karsono's bad policies to the minister, a copy of which was made available to The Jakarta Post, in what they regard as an effort to prevent further abuse of power by Karsono.

"We believe that many of his policies, such as organizational restructuring ... will be detrimental to the performance of the department," the letter said.

"To prevent things from getting worse, the incumbent Karsono should be replaced with someone of good vision and morals."

The protesting employees said that the forced merger of two operational units of the directorate general: the credit division and auction division would only benefit privately owned auction companies.

The employees accused Karsono of having received a brand new Mercedes Benz limousine from private auction firm PT Balindo.

However, the main complaint centered around losses to the state because of the alleged back-door deals made by Karsono and related parties for their personal gain.

During his two years of service, Karsono has granted requests by the Bintan Auction office to lower its administration fee from 1 percent of the transaction value to 0.01 percent.

The letter indicated that Karsono had received 'compensation' from Bintan Auction for his consent in reducing the administration fee.

Worse still, granting the request would mean overstepping his authority.

This is ironic amid the country's efforts to collect higher revenue from taxes, it added.

Given the strategic role the agency has, the minister has to respond promptly to address the matter to avoid further losses to the state.

Boediono, however, when asked about the matter, refused to comment.

Efforts to contact Karsono were also unsuccessful.

The Directorate General for State Credit and Auction of State Assets is tasked primarily with collecting state bank loans which have turned sour, and to address requests to sell assets held by state enterprises.

That includes the sale of certain assets under the supervision of the Indonesian Bank Restructuring Agency (IBRA).

This makes the agency extremely powerful, especially when IBRA's term ends in 2004, because the agency will then be the only state institution equipped with legal authority to handle the disposal of assets of state enterprises.