IBRA legal counsel to miss deadline

The Jakarta Post, Jakarta

A team of legal experts assigned to identify bad debtors of the Indonesian Bank Restructuring Agency (IBRA) will miss its one month deadline on Thursday, and may have to extend it by another two weeks, according to a team member.

Lawyer Frans H. Winarta said on Wednesday the bulk of paperwork had slowed the team's review, which he estimates to be just over half done.

"There is a huge bulk of documents to go through, and copying them takes so much time," he told The Jakarta Post on Wednesday.

Frans is one of several lawyers at IBRA's legal counsel.

It was set up a month ago to identify recalcitrant debtors among the 33 ex-bankers who owe IBRA some US$10 billion in state- funded loans, which they have admitted misusing.

The debtors agreed to a debt settlement deal, but have largely ignored them even though many expire later this year.

Frans said he found that about half the debtors he reviewed had failed to fully comply with their debt settlement deals with IBRA.

A government official said the legal counsel will report its progress to the Financial Sector Policy Committee (FSPC) on Thursday.

The FSPC consists of senior economic ministers, and is in charge of IBRA's debt-restructuring deals worth more than Rp 1 trillion ($106 million).