Government will not write off consortium debts: Agung

Government will not write off consortium debts: Agung

JAKARTA (JP): State Minister of Youth Affairs and Sports Agung
Laksono on Wednesday refuted reports that the government would
write off the debt of the 19th Southeast Asian (SEA) Games
underwriting consortium.

"The reports are untrue. The government will only take over
the consortium's debt, but only after a thorough review of the
consortium's audited financial reports saying they suffered
losses," he announced after a coordination meeting on the
eradication of poverty.

"The debt must be covered because we cannot let the forestry
ministry suffer losses if the International Monetary Fund audits
its financial reports. The debt is Rp 35 billion (US$5.23
million) plus Rp 5 billion in interest."

The consortium, which was responsible for raising money to
stage the biennial event in 1997, owes Rp 35 billion to the State
Secretariat, but claims it had no idea the money was taken from
the forestry ministry's reforestation fund.

The consortium, chaired by former president Soeharto's son
Bambang Trihatmodjo, asked the government to take over its debt,
saying it was unable to repay its total debt of Rp 156 billion.

The idea arose from a meeting between Agung, Deputy Attorney
General for Civil and State Administrative Affairs Wan Jacob
Rahim Saleh and the consortium's executive director, Bambang
Riyadi Soegama, two weeks ago.

"It is not certain the government will take over the debt
because it will have to see if the consortium's failure to pay
its debt was based on mismanagement or force majeure. If it was
because of force majeure, we must consider whether to force them
to repay all of their debt, or excuse them from paying the
interest on the debt or take some other action. This is not under
my authority, but the state secretary's," Agung said.

"The decision is not final because we also have to consult
with the House of Representatives, hopefully, on Monday."

Minister of Justice/State Secretary Muladi expressed his
reservations last week about the government underwriting the
consortium's debt.

He also proposed the idea of hiring a public auditor to
reaudit the consortium's financial reports.

Agung said if the government took over the debt, the
consortium would not be excused from repaying its debt.

"We're not writing off their debt. Don't think that they can
just run away from their responsibilities," he said.

Agung urged the consortium to begin rescheduling its debt
repayments, as promised by Bambang Soegama last year.

"The consortium has been promising to repay its debts step-by-
step since last year, but apparently they gave up due to the
monetary crisis."

Agung said the consortium had repaid 60 percent of its Rp 1.3
billion debt to hotels and the Gelora Senayan management board.

Agung also said Habibie had approved his visit to a number of
training centers to oversee national athletes' preparations for
the 20th SEA Games in Brunei Darussalam from Aug. 7 to Aug. 15.

However, Agung contradicted the National Sports Council's
stated ambition to retain the country's overall title in the
biennial event.

"It's more important to improve our athletes' performances,
particularly the juniors, than to retain the title. Retaining the
title is number two," he said.

Agung also said the government would give moral support to
Indonesia's Ananda Mikola, who is racing in the Formula 3000 in
Italy.

"Ananda is a very talented athlete who needs to be supported.
The government urges businesspeople to financially help Ananda
reach his ambition of becoming Formula 1 champion." (yan)