IBRA official quizzed over misuse of Rp 20.9t

IBRA official quizzed over misuse of Rp 20.9t

Abdul Khalik, The Jakarta Post, Jakarta

The police have started investigating alleged misuses of Account
502 by questioning a senior official at the Indonesian Bank
Restructuring Agency (IBRA).

A police investigator who declined to be named said on Tuesday
that the IBRA bank restructuring unit deputy chairman I Nyoman
Sender had been summoned to shed light on alleged misuses of the
Rp 20.9 trillion (US$2.47 billion) held in the account.

"We have questioned Sender as a witness to begin the
investigation of the case. This is based on public reports that
we received in November," said the police investigator from the
National Police's detectives division.

Contacted separately, Sender confirmed that he had been
questioned for eight hours as a witness at National Police
Headquarters to clarify IBRA's role in the case.

According to the police investigator, Sender's questioning was
just the beginning of a series of probes involving officials that
would be held over the coming weeks.

Account 502 was opened by the government at Bank Indonesia as
a bridging fund to repay third party deposits held in banks
closed down at the height of the economic crisis in 1997 and
1998.

Only Bank Indonesia (BI) and IBRA had access to the account,
created as part of the government's blanket guarantee scheme to
help restore confidence in the country's banking industry.

The Supreme Audit Agency (BPK) alleged in August that some Rp
20.9 trillion from the account had been misused by BI and IBRA.

The BPK audit report was the result of an investigation
undertaken at the request of the House of Representatives in mid
2001, after most of the funds (approximately Rp 53.8 trillion) in
the account had been used.

The audit request was made after the government decided to set
up a second account worth approximately Rp 40 trillion for the
same purpose. The new account is known as Account No. 509.

The audit report said that of the Rp 20.9 trillion of
allegedly-misused funds, Rp 17.77 trillion had been used by BI
and the remainder by IBRA.

Of the Rp 17.7 trillion funds used by BI, Rp 14.45 trillion
was allegedly taken in May 2000. BI regarded the funds as being
available for additional liquidity support loans (BLBI) on top of
the Rp 144.5 trillion in funds injected into troubled banks by
the central bank during the first phase of the BLBI program.

BI injected hundreds of trillions of rupiah into ailing banks
under the program to prevent the banking sector from collapsing
after it was severely hit by the economic crisis in the late
1990s.

Both BI and IBRA claim that there was no wrongdoing involved
in the use of the funds and that everything had been done in line
with the prevailing rules and regulations.

BI has already granted permission to the National Police to
examine the account as a further step toward a full investigation
of the case.

"We were given permission to check Account No. 502 today. We
hope to finish examining the account as soon as possible," said
National Police detective's deputy chief Insp. Gen. Suyitno
Landung.