Legislators to question Bambang Tri on Banpres

Legislators to question Bambang Tri on Banpres

Fabiola Desy Unidjaja, The Jakarta Post, Jakarta

An investigation into irregularities in the Presidential Aid Fund
(Banpres) is widening, with House of Representatives members
planning to summon former president Soeharto's son Bambang
Trihatmodjo and businessman Bambang Riyadi Sugama.

House Commission I member Djoko Susilo said on Thursday the
two would be summoned as members of the Sea Games Consortium,
which borrowed Rp 70 billion from the Banpres in 1997 and still
has not repaid the money.

"The House will summon the two businessmen as soon as possible
to demand that they return the money to the state," Djoko said
after questioning former assistant state secretary Bambang
Sutanto over the matter.

Djoko, who is a member of the Commission I team set up to look
into abuses of Banpres, refused to say exactly when his team
would question the two men.

The Sea Games Consortium was established to organize and
sponsor the biannual sports event involving member countries of
the Association of Southeast Asian Nations (ASEAN), which
Indonesia hosted in 1997. Most consortium members were family
members and associates of former president Soeharto.

Bambang Sutanto, who administered the fund from 1996 to June
2000, said on Thursday that Soeharto ordered him to give Rp 70
billion to the consortium.

"As far as I can remember, they never returned the money to
the state," said Bambang, who now works in the Vice Presidential
Office.

He also told the House team that the Tapos plantation received
Rp 6.7 billion from the fund, which has not been repaid. Tapos is
owned by Soeharto.

Bambang Sutanto was the fifth former and current state
official summoned by the House during its investigation into
irregularities in Banpres, a fund established by Soeharto in
1984.

The investigation was triggered by President Megawati
Soekarnoputri's announcement earlier this year that she had given
Rp 30 billion to the Indonesian Military and the National Police
to build housing for their personnel.

Megawati originally failed to reveal the source of the money,
stirring speculation that Megawati's camp was illegally
collecting funds from the public to buy the military and police's
support in the 2004 general election.

State/Cabinet Secretary Bambang Kesowo belatedly told the
House in May that the money was taken from Banpres. His
explanation prompted House Commission I to investigate
irregularities in Banpres.

The House has already summoned former state secretaries
Moerdiono, Muladi and Ali Rachman, and former presidential
secretary Abdul Mudjib Manan. Bondan Gunawan, Djohan Effendy and
current State Secretary Bambang Kesowo are scheduled to be
summoned next week.

Bambang Sutanto said there was some Rp 476 billion and US$14
million in Banpres when he handed it over to his successor Djohan
Effendy in June 2000.

He also said President Megawati, in the beginning of her
tenure last year, ordered Bambang Kesowo to combine the fund and
hand it over to the Ministry of Finance.

"Bambang Kesowo returned the fund to the Ministry of Finance
in May this year," Bambang Sutanto said.