Liquidated bank's offices sealed in surprise move

JAKARTA (JP): The remaining employees of the now-defunct Bank Harapan Sentosa (BHS) found their West Jakarta offices sealed with a notice barring their entrance yesterday.

The front doors of the BHS headquarters on Jl. Gajah Mada and one of its branches at the nearby Gajah Mada Plaza shopping center were sealed with a notice stating the properties were now under the authority of PT ASABRI.

PT ASABRI is an institution affiliated with the Indonesian Armed Forces (ABRI).

The firm, an insurance company serving ABRI members, retired military personnel and civil servants including Ministry of Defense and Security staff, was a BHS client.

BHS was one of 16 ailing private banks closed by the government three months ago.

Executives of ASABRI and BHS could not be reached to disclose the total deposits of the insurance company in the bank.

ASABRI head of general affairs Totok Sudarto said: "We're not directly dealing with BHS. It's the Ministry of Defense and Security that deals with the bank."

A reliable source at ASABRI told SCTV last night the it had deposits of at least Rp 100 billion in the bank.

The bank employees, kept on to process the payment of its clients, came to work at about 8 a.m.

Many decided to wait in front of the offices since they could not enter.

Some said the sealing of the bank offices by ASABRI could slow down their work in liquidating the bank.

The employees believed the notice was placed late Wednesday.

Denial

Totok said ASABRI had nothing to do with the sealing of the bank offices.

"We're not behind the sealing because such a procedure must have my approval," Totok told The Jakarta Post last night.

"I personally only know about it from the television report this afternoon," he added.

Totok said ASABRI had no authority to post the notice even though it was affiliated with the military.

"As far as I'm concerned, ASABRI didn't send people to seal the buildings," he said.

Totok said executives of the insurance company would talk about the case today with related parties, including a team from Bank Indonesia.

Bank Indonesia handles the payment of deposits owned by customers of the liquidated banks.

When asked to comment about the sealing, a lawyer said the action could not be justified.

"ASABRI is just one of BHS' customers. Only the liquidation team has the right to carry out such an action," said Alamsyah Hanafiah of Alamsyah Hanafiah and Associates law firm.

If BHS assets were to be sealed by a third party, it should be done with the knowledge of the liquidation team, said Alamsyah, who once worked for BHS owner Hendra Rahardja.

"The BHS buildings and lands are merely the debt guarantee to repay its customers," he said. (emf)