Govt to set up team probe private banks
Govt to set up team probe private banks
JAKARTA (JP): The government said yesterday it would soon
establish a special team to probe possible fraud in the use of
Bank Indonesia's liquidity credits given to private banks.
Minister of Justice Muladi said yesterday the team would
investigate all the private banks which had received liquidity
credits from the central bank.
"All banks -- healthy or not, with or without problems --
which have used BI's liquidity credits will be investigated,"
Muladi told reporters after a meeting at the office of
Coordinating Minister for Development Supervision/Administrative
Affairs Hartarto Sastrosoenarto.
The team, consisting of his ministry, the National Police and
the Development Finance Comptroller, will examine whether there
was an "element of deceit" in the banks' use of the financial
support.
Banks considered deceitful are those which spent the
government's money for their own private interests and caused the
government losses.
The Attorney General's Office will handle the corruption cases
while any criminal offenses will be directed to the National
Police.
"Our priority is to resolve the administrative aspect of the
cases in the civil court so that we can get the money back. Any
criminal charges would follow thereafter," Muladi said.
All the banks which received the central bank's liquidity
credits would be examined before charges were brought, he said.
Bank Indonesia's latest report cited that its liquidity
support to troubled banks under the supervision of the Indonesian
Bank Restructuring Agency (IBRA) totaled Rp 135.58 trillion
(US$11.79 billion) as of Aug. 14.
Seven of the banks under IBRA, including the recently
nationalized Bank Central Asia (BCA), Bank Danamon, Bank Tiara
Asia and Bank PDFCI, and the suspended BDNI, Bank Umum Nasional
(BUN) and Modern Bank received central bank liquidity support
equivalent to more than 500 percent of their capital. They also
violated the legal lending limit.
IBRA announced in June that Bank Tiara had received Rp 2.44
trillion in central bank liquidity support, PDFCI Rp 2.5 trillion
and BUN Rp 6.6 trillion.
Bank Indonesia Governor Sjahrir Sobirin said yesterday BI
would turn over six liquidated banks to the police for
investigation within the next two days.
Yesterday's meeting was also attended by Attorney General Andi
Galib, Deputy National Police chief Lt. Gen. Lutfie Dahlan,
Minister of Finance Bambang Subianto, and IBRA Chairman Glenn S.
Yusuf.
World Bank
Earlier yesterday, Hartarto met with the World Bank's country
director for Indonesia, Dennis de Tray, State Minister of
National Development Planning Boediono and BPKP officials to work
on efforts to reduce rampant corruption, especially in World
Bank-financed projects.
De Tray said the World Bank was working on a program to help
the government reduce graft practices in the country.
"My staff are going to meet with Pak Hartarto's staff tomorrow
(today) afternoon to put together the plans," De Tray told
reporters after the meeting.
He described the meeting as "constructive", but declined to
give more details.
The Asian Wall Street Journal, quoting a World Bank
memorandum, reported last week that Indonesian officials were
believed to have siphoned off more than 20 percent of the bank's
loans to Indonesia.
Hartarto said the government and the World Bank would disclose
the report and the efforts to eradicate corruption to the public
next week. (das)