House to summon banking authorities
JAKARTA (JP): The House of Representatives will summon Minister of Finance Bambang Subianto, Indonesian Bank Restructuring Agency (IBRA) chairman Glenn S. Yusuf and Bank Indonesia Governor Sjahril Sabirin on Thursday to disclose their findings in the Bank Bali scandal.
"We'll summon the banking authorities on Sept. 2 to disclose their audit results," House member Ichsanuddin Noorsy said on the sidelines of a seminar on banking.
"If they refuse to meet us, they can be charged with contempt of the legislature," said Ichsanuddin, a member of the Golkar Party.
Ichsanuddin said the meeting was scheduled based on a request made by the three officials during an Aug. 20 hearing with House Commission VIII for banking and the state budget for two weeks to investigate the scandal.
Australia-based PricewaterhouseCoopers is completing its audit verifying IBRA's internal audit of the Bank Bali case. The foreign company is also auditing the central bank under a special agreement with the Supreme Audit Agency.
A senior official at the central bank said on Monday PricewaterhouseCoopers was expected to complete its audit of Bank Indonesia on Tuesday.
"They started their audit on Friday afternoon and continued working on Saturday and Sunday," the central bank official said.
The Bank Bali case centers on the transfer of Rp 546 billion (some US$80 million) from Bank Bali to PT Era Giat Prima (EGP), a private firm owned by businessmen linked to the ruling Golkar Party. The money was paid to EGP for its service in helping Bank Bali recoup interbank claims on closed Bank Dagang Nasional Indonesia (BDNI).
IBRA has insisted Bank Bali should not have used the service of EGP because the interbank claims were assured through the government's blanket guarantee program.
There have been allegations the commission paid to EGP was to be used to help finance Habibie's presidential bid.
Indonesian Democratic Party of Struggle (PDI Perjuangan) chairwoman Megawati Soekarnoputri, whose party won the June general election with 34 percent of the vote, is seen as Habibie's main rival in the November presidential election.
Although the Rp 546 billion has been returned to Bank Bali, the public is demanding the government investigate all those involved in the case and take legal action against those who broke the law.
Some experts have voiced concern the Habibie administration is trying to portray the scandal as merely a civil case and prevent influential people from being implicated.
Minister/State Secretary Muladi read out last week a statement from former Bank Bali president Rudy Ramli denying the existence of a personal diary documenting his meetings with several senior ministers and Habibie associates ahead of the transaction with EGP.
PDI Perjuangan lodged a complaint with the National Police against Rudy the day after this statement was read out, accusing Rudy of being a liar.
The party's lawyer, Amien Haryoso, said Rudy voluntarily showed him the diary when Rudy asked him to serve as his counsel.
There is speculation Rudy was pressured by the Habibie camp to deny the existence of the diary, alleged copies of which were given to journalists two weeks ago.
Detained
Separately, Indonesian Bar Association deputy chairman Sudjono and the chairman of the United Development Party (PPP) faction in the House, Zarkasih Nur, demanded Rudy be detained to prevent him from tampering with any evidence of his involvement in the scandal.
"Since Bank Indonesia deputy governor Soebarjo Joyosumarto has said the central bank has found enough evidence to pronounce Rudy a suspect in a banking crime, he should be detained to expedite the investigation," Sudjono said on Monday.
Sudjono and Zarkasih stressed the importance of quickly, transparently and satisfactorily resolving the scandal in order to free the economy from negative market perception.
They said Rudy's denial of the existence of a diary he voluntarily showed to PDI Perjuangan two weeks earlier, provided strong reason to detain him to prevent his tampering with evidence linking him with the scandal.
The Bank Bali scandal, which some have compared to the Watergate case which toppled United States president Richard M. Nixon in the late 1970s, has become a serious threat to Habibie's presidential bid.
An economist at Gadjah Mada University, Sri Adiningsih, doubted the government could satisfactorily resolve the Bank Bali scandal.
She said the government tended to localize the issue and refused to include independent investigators in the case.
In a related development, the police on Monday questioned EGP president Setya Novanto over the scandal. The questioning of Setya was delayed as police awaited Habibie's permission to interrogate Setya. This authorization was necessary because Setya is a member of the People's Consultative Assembly.
"There were several questions to which Setya did not give direct answers or answered in a roundabout manner. Otherwise, he appeared quite calm," National Police spokesman Brig. Gen. Togar Sianipar told The Jakarta Post.
Togar said the police were still waiting for written permission from the central bank to open Setya's bank account. (rei/har/ylt)