Golkar says it repaid Rp 15b to Manimaren

Golkar says it repaid Rp 15b to Manimaren

JAKARTA (JP): The Golkar Party said on Sunday it repaid Rp 15
billion (US$2.2 million) in loans it received from M. Manimaren,
chairman of PT Ungaran Sari Garment and one of the party's deputy
treasurers, in a transaction linked to the Bank Bali scandal.

"We repaid the loans a long time ago and we have evidence to
prove it, even in court," Golkar chairman Akbar Tandjung said.

Akbar, who is also speaker of the House of Representatives,
said his party borrowed the money from Manimaren on June 2 to
finance its political activities, particularly in the run up to
the June 7 general election.

Akbar said Golkar understood the funds were from Manimaren's
business and not from a commission paid by Bank Bali to PT Era
Giat Prima.

"Golkar therefore is not in any way involved in the Bank Bali
scandal," he said, referring to the high-profile affair in which
the bank transferred Rp 546 billion to PT Era Giat Prima on June
1 as a commission to assure its interbank claims on closed
institutions were reimbursed by the Indonesian Bank Restructuring
Agency.

A Golkar team verified that the party was not involved in the
scandal, Akbar said, adding that if several Golkar executives
were implicated in the scandal "that was simply their own
business deals".

The PricewaterhouseCoopers (PwC) audit of transactions in the
scandal found the Rp 15 billion was not derived directly from
Manimaren but from businessman Arung Gauk Jarre, a close
associate of former minister of the empowerment of state
enterprises Tanri Abeng.

PwC recommended further investigation of both Jarre and Tanri.

The audit reported that Manimaren obtained Rp 30 billion in a
loan from Bank Lippo to his company on May 27 and transferred the
entire amount on the same day to Jarre.

Jarre in turn made three transfers amounting to Rp 5 billion
to the Golkar election committee's account at Bank Bumi Daya's
branch at the House of Representatives on June 2.

Banking analysts have questioned the procedures in Bank
Lippo's loans to Manimaren because Ungaran Sari Garment obtained
the Rp 30 billion loan from Bank Lippo on May 26, the same day it
submitted its loan request.

Analysts found it a questionable coincidence that Manimaren's
company obtained the loan from Bank Lippo only one day after
Manimaren, through an arrangement by then finance minister
Bambang Subianto, met with then Bank Bali's president Rudy Ramli
about the processing of the bank's interbank claims.

They also queried how Bank Lippo, which was then in the
process of being recapitalized by the government, was capable of
providing such a substantial loan to a single company through a
"super express credit assessment".