JP/4/bakrie
JP/4/bakrie
Aburizal slammed over Bank Mandiri comment
The Jakarta Post
Jakarta
Anticorruption activists have lashed out at chief economics
minister Aburizal Bakrie on Sunday for making a statement that
apparently defended state-owned Bank Mandiri that is currently
facing a graft probe over some bad loans.
They said the statement by the coordinating minister for the
economy could dampen the government's effort to fight corruption,
with Indonesia ranked as one of the most corrupt nations on
earth.
On Thursday, Aburizal said that procedural irregularities by
Bank Mandiri -- the country's largest bank in terms of assets --
in providing loans worth up to Rp 12 trillion (US$1.26 billion)
that later had to be booked as bad debts, could not be
interpreted as corruption.
"Irregularities don't necessarily mean corruption. It's an old
concept and state officials should change that. The important
thing is that we should be looking at the end results," he said.
Responding to the statement, Indonesia Corruption Watch (ICW)
deputy chairman Lucky Djani said it was improper for the chief
economics minister to make such a statement amid the ongoing
investigation into alleged corruption at the bank.
"Irregularities, which are deliberately created so that
someone makes a profit, are another form of corruption, just like
what happened in the BNI (Bank Negara Indonesia) graft scam
because there was no supervision or warning systems," Lucky
argued.
He said that instead of issuing such a statement, Aburizal as
a high-ranking government official should have encouraged the
Attorney General's Office (AGO) to find those responsible for the
non-performing loans, especially as Bank Mandiri is a publicly
listed company.
Similarly, another anticorruption activist Bambang Widjojanto
said Aburizal's comment could attenuate the government's national
drive against corruption.
"We should quietly wait for the final results of the
investigation, then we can start making statements," he said.
In the first stage of their investigation, AGO prosecutors
were focusing on alleged irregularities by Bank Mandiri in
channeling more than Rp 1 trillion in loans to four companies --
TV broadcaster PT Lativi Media Karya, PT Citra Graha
Nusantara/Tahta Medan, PT Arutmin and PT Siak Zamrud Pusaka.
Several debtors have already been declared suspects in the
case.
Lucky also criticized other high-ranking government officials
for lacking a sense of awareness when it comes to bank scams,
graft or any other cases.
"We should compare this with other countries, where if there
is a single case of embezzlement, they would investigate it
intensively without asking whether it is merely an 'irregularity'
or corruption," he said.
"Besides, if it is only an irregularity, how could it involve
so much money? The mechanism of giving loans should be fixed as
well," Lucky said.
This contradicts another of Aburizal's statements that losses
during the extending of loans by banks were common and that if
lending was profitable then procedures should be put to one side.
Aburizal Bakrie once controlled the Bakrie Group, his family
business, before becoming a minister. Last year's audit of
publicly listed PT Bakrie & Brothers showed that its subsidiary
PT Bakrie Telecom secured a long-term loan worth Rp 548.2 billion
from Bank Mandiri.
However, PT Bakrie Telecom on Sunday denied the report, saying
the loan obtained in April 2003 was not problematic.
"Currently, the amount of Bakrie Telecom's debt with Bank
Mandiri has decreased to Rp 515.8 billion because in 2004 we paid
the principle of the loan worth Rp 32.7 billion," the company's
senior manager for corporate communications, Lalu Mara Satria,
said in a press statement.
"So, it was not true that the debt was restructured through a
'haircut' (debt write-off) agreed to by the bank," he added.