KPPU forms BCA monitoring team
The Jakarta Post, Jakarta
To help ensure transparency, the Business Competition Supervisory Commission (KKPU) has set up a special team to monitor the high profile sale of the government's 51 percent stake in the publicly listed Bank Central Asia (BCA).
The KPPU said in a press statement issued on Tuesday that the establishment of such a team was necessary to address concerns that BCA's original owner, the Salim Group, might try to repurchase the bank despite a government ban.
The commission said that several noted figures had been appointed to the team.
They were: Pande Radja Silalahi, Faisal Basri, Bambang P. Adiwiyoto, Syamsul Maarif and Sutrisno Iwantoro as chairman.
BCA was nationalized by the government through the Indonesian Bank Restructuring Agency (IBRA) in the wake of the 1997 financial crisis. The agency now plans to sell the bank in a bid to raise cash to help finance the state budget.
Concerns have been rife that Salim is pushing ahead with its plan to regain control of the country's largest private bank, and the lack of transparency surrounding the tender process has just served to strengthen the suspicions.
The commission said that the sale of BCA had become a national issue as the government had spent more than Rp 80 trillion (some US$7.7 billion) in bailing out the bank at the height of the financial crisis.
The commission was established in 1999 with its principal task being to prevent irregularities in business practices in the country so as to create fair and equitable competition.
The KPPU monitoring team is scheduled to quiz IBRA officers on Wednesday on various matters regarding the BCA tender process.
The matters to be queried include clear criteria for bidders, tender procedures and criteria, the process for determining the winning bidder, and the latest progress in the tender process.
There are currently eight bidders competing for the government's share of BCA. The bidders are expected to submit their final bids on Jan. 28.
Meanwhile, Bank Indonesia Governor Sjahril Sabirin said on Tuesday that some bidders had yet to hand over the necessary documents to allow the central bank to conduct a fit and proper test.
He declined to elaborate or to name the bidders.
Investors planning to take a controlling stake in Indonesian banks must pass a Bank Indonesia fit and proper test.
Since the attempt to sell off BCA was first launched in 2000, a succession of snags have been hit arising from various sources, including political interference and unfavorable market conditions.
IBRA should have wrapped up a sell-off deal last year but was forced to put back the deadline to give the current bidders more time to conduct their due diligence processes on the bank.