House appoints BI deputy governors

House appoints BI deputy governors

The Jakarta Post, Jakarta

The House of Representatives appointed three Bank Indonesia
deputy governors late on Wednesday, overriding an earlier deal to
wait for an amendment to the central bank law.

Promoted from senior officials to deputy governors were
Maulana Ibrahim, Maman Sumantri, and Bunbunan Hutapea, said Benny
Pasaribu, chairman of House Commission IX on the state budget and
finance, which oversees the central bank.

The three replaced Achwan, who retired early this year, Dono
Iskandar, who retired late last year, and Burhanuddin Abdullah,
who resigned earlier this year after then president Abdurrahman
Wahid named him as coordinating minister for the economy.

Abdurrahman's downfall paved the way for legislators to
reshuffle BI's top management, thus reducing the appetite for a
new central bank law.

Abdurrahman's administration had insisted that the amendment
of the central bank law come before the naming of new governors.

Under the central bank law, a governor cannot be replaced
unless he or she has been proven guilty of a crime, has become
incapacitated, or voluntarily resigns.

According to Abdurrahman, reshuffling the governors would have
rid the central bank of its corrupt past practices.

The current board was in charge during the period when
billions of dollars worth of liquidity support were misused.

Abdurrahman had made clear his intention to remove Bank
Indonesia Governor Sjahril Sabirin.

But plans to amend the central bank law met with criticism
from the International Monetary Fund (IMF), which argued that the
move would put at risk the central bank's hard-won independence.

Bank Indonesia was put under IMF supervision after the massive
abuse of liquidity support loans had been revealed.

Benny said the House would proceed with plans to amend the
law, but it remained to be seen when this would start.