Maman's trial exposes weaknesses in Bapindo's control

JAKARTA (JP): According to court testimony given yesterday, Maman Suparman handled the credits for businessman Eddy Tansil almost single handedly when he was deputy manager of the Jakarta branch of Bapindo, acting with little effective control from his superiors.

Branch employees who worked under Maman testified in the South Jakarta District Court yesterday that they had the impression that Tansil was a special client that required special handling.

Maman has been accused of colluding with Tansil in siphoning off some $448 million of Bapindo's funds between 1989 and 1993. According to the prosecution, Maman was directly involved in helping Tansil to disburse some $174 million in loans and received Rp 256 million ($122,000) in return for his services.

Currently, Tansil is also on trial in the Central Jakarta District Court.

Joseph Sukardi, who headed the branch's foreign services, told the court that Tansil often came to the Bapindo office to see Maman.

Gifts

Joseph acknowledged that he too was showered with gifts from Tansil on a number of occasions in return for helping to process the loan applications.

But the gifts were restricted to pens, wristwatches, a pair of spectacles, and a tennis racket, he said.

"That's my level. Maman was on a different level," he said, after being asked by prosecutors' whether or not he was aware that Maman had received bribes from Tansil.

Joseph said Tansil was treated as a special client of the bank because his petrochemical projects were allowed to proceed when the government froze other privately-run mega-projects in 1990 during a credit crunch.

Gadjali, who held Joseph's position until 1990, testified in court that he too helped process the documents, allowing Tansil to cash in on the loans on several occasions when Maman was away. He said that he did it because he knew that the deputy manager would have approved it.

He also said he had warned Maman several times of the financial risks of Tansil's loans, but the latter responded by saying that he would take care of it.

Maman's immediate superior, the branch's manager Indra Rastika, gave testimony stating that he was not fully informed about the loan transactions between his office and Tansil.

Maman, however, responded at the hearing yesterday by accusing both Joseph and Gadjali of acting beyond their authority when they signed the loan documents during his absence.

Approval

He also said that he had assumed at that time that his staff had acted with the approval of their superiors.

Responding to Indra's testimony, Maman also stressed that the branch manager should have been aware of all transactions with Tansil given that all incoming telex passed through him.

Yohanis Djijo, who worked for the supervision department at Bapindo's Head Office, said that when he was assigned to audit the Jakarta branch books in 1992, he noted that many of the loan transactions between the branch and Tansil were never entered in the books. This made detections of irregularities difficult.

Yohanis also said that after the first irregularities were found in 1992, he had recommended in his report to the board of directors that the loans to Tansil be stopped. However, the loans were continued.

Maman responded to this by insisting that the books were audited every six months by the head office.

He said he found it incredible that the head office took such long time to discover the "irregularities" given the bank had been dealing with Tansil since 1989.

On Saturday, when Maman testified in Tansil's trial, he said pressures from the board of directors played a major factor in his decision to virtually go all out to meet Tansil's needs.

Other Bapindo executives during Saturday's hearing also suggested pressures from a cabinet minister.

Tansil's trial resumes today with testimony of four former Bapindo directors -- Sjahrizal, Towil Heryoto, Subekti Ismaun and Bambang Kuntjoro. (05)