Loan disbursement not discussed: Baramuli
JAKARTA (JP): Former Supreme Advisory Council (DPA) chairman A.A. Baramuli, has denied any involvement in the Bank Bali scandal, although he has acknowledged he was engaged in several meetings with some business associates and banking officials.
Baramuli told a hearing at the South Jakarta District Court on Monday that the meetings did not discuss measures to accelerate the bank's loan disbursement from the Indonesian Bank Restructuring Agency (IBRA).
"I have met with those individuals several times, but we never discussed the disbursement of the bank's loan from IBRA," he said during the trial of Djoko S. Tjandra, an executive at PT Era Giat Prima (EGP), the main defendant in the bank scandal.
He did not specify any names, but he was likely referring to Central Bank Governor Sjahril Sabirin, then state minister of investment and state enterprises development Tanri Abeng, then IBRA deputy chairman Pande Lubis, former deputy chairman of Bank Bali Firman Soetjahja, PT EGP executives Djoko S. Tjandra and Setya Novanto and businessman Marimutu Manimaren.
Baramuli, Marimutu and Setya Novanto are actively involved in the former ruling Golkar Party.
Baramuli insisted that the meetings, which were held last year, were only ordinary meetings.
"I met and received a lot of people at my home, including those figures, but we didn't talk about the disbursement of the loans," he said in the hearing, presided over by Judge Soedarto.
He denied that he attended a Feb. 11 meeting last year at Hotel Mulia in Central Jakarta, which was organized by defendant Djoko.
"I didn't attend the meeting since I was at my DPA office until late afternoon," he said.
Baramuli accused Firman Soetjahja of having bad intentions toward state officials when the latter testified in the previous hearing that Baramuli, Sjahril, Tanri, Pande Lubis, Setya Novanto and Djoko attended the Feb. 11 meeting.
"From his statement, it's likely Firman was devising a ploy to ruin state officials' good names," he said.
In the previous court hearing, Sjahril also denied attending the Feb. 11 meeting.
Another witness, Marimutu Manimaren, however, rejected Baramuli's testimony, saying that there were several meetings held to discuss the disbursement of not only the Bank Bali loans, but also other bank loans to IBRA.
"The meetings were held several times from May to June last year in the houses of Tanri, Baramuli and former finance minister Bambang Subianto," said Manimaren, who is also an executive of the diversified Texmaco group of companies.
Manimaren also touched on Tanri's alleged involvement in the scandal, saying that Tanri reportedly sought Rp 300 billion (US$35.2 million) out of the total Bank Bali interbank loans of Rp 1.7 trillion.
"In a meeting, Tanri said he would receive a Rp 300 billion commission if all the interbank loans could be disbursed," he said.
"But the scandal erupted in the media before the deal was made a reality."
Djoko, however, denied Manimaren's accusation, saying that Tanri had never intended to seek a commission from the loan disbursement.
"We discussed the problems of KONI (the National Sports Committee) during the meetings, but not interbank loans," he said.
Tanri is a former chairman of the Indonesian Lawn Tennis Association (Pelti).
The scandal centers on the transfer of Rp 546 billion from the bank to PT EGP. The money was paid as a commission for the company's assistance in recouping Bank Bali's some Rp 904 billion in interbank loans on closed banks under the supervision of IBRA. (asa)