Govt bans 172 bankers from traveling
JAKARTA (JP): The government issued travel bans on 172 bankers on Thursday, almost three weeks after the closure of 38 ailing banks.
Director General of Immigration Muhammad Mudakir said on Thursday the ban was imposed at the request of Minister of Finance Bambang Subianto.
"I received the request at 2:50 p.m.," Mudakir said.
Earlier in the day, Bambang said he had requested the Ministry of Justice to ban "more than 170 bankers" from traveling abroad due to debt problems.
But a Bank Indonesia senior official, who requested anonymity, said the central bank recommended on March 15 the names of 178 bankers to be included in the travel ban list.
Bambang said the bans were necessary because the bankers would be needed for questioning by the finance authority regarding the failure of their banks.
Mudakir said the travel ban would be effective for six months and could be extended at the request of the finance minister.
He declined to identify both the bankers and their banks.
"I do not remember each and every bank's name, but there are 172 people, 11 of them are women."
He also refused to confirm whether members of former president Soeharto's family were among those banned from traveling abroad.
On March 13, the government announced the closure of 38 banks -- including three institutions owned by Soeharto's children -- in a bid to clean up the country's ailing banking sector.
The banks were saddled with massive bad loans and had breached their legal lending limits,
An announcement concerning the travel bans was initially expected from Minister of Justice Muladi earlier in the week, but was postponed because the finance minister had not provided him with the list.
Republika daily reported on Wednesday that some 100 bankers had managed to flee the country because the government had been slow to issue the travel bans.
"If they have fled the country, it is the duty of the National Police to cooperate with the international police to bring them back," Mudakir said on Thursday.
Questioning
When asked about the travel ban, Bambang said: "It's not easy to come up with the list. We have to check it thoroughly because this would affect a person's reputation."
He added that some bankers would not be included in the list because the government was convinced, based on various considerations, that they would make themselves available when needed for questioning.
He said a team from Bank Indonesia, the Indonesian Bank Restructuring Agency and the Ministry of Finance would question the bankers and verify various data provided by the banks.
The government has provided a massive amount of money as part of its commitment to guarantee all deposits in commercial banks.
Bambang said names on the travel ban list differed from those on the list of errant bankers, which the government would not disclose publicly.
The chairwoman of the Federation of Domestic Private Banks, Gunarni Soeworo, said it would be wrong to publicly disclose the names of errant bankers because such as announcement would need prior judicial process.
She has urged that the list of errant bankers be used only for internal government purposes.
Separately, a senior government official said some bankers had been lobbying President B.J. Habibie to exclude them from the list of those to be prohibited from travelling overseas.
Many suspect lobbying has been rampant in the country's bank restructuring program. The postponement of the closure of the 38 banks, initially scheduled for Feb. 27, was seen as one example. (byg/rei)