Mandiri Bank CEO quizzed by prosecutors
Eva C. Komandjaja, The Jakarta Post, Jakarta
State-owned Bank Mandiri president E.C.W. Neloe was questioned by the Attorney General's Office (AGO) on Wednesday in connection with an alleged lending scandal at the giant bank.
It was the first time for Neloe to face questioning. Earlier, the AGO quizzed three Bank Mandiri directors -- M. Sholeh Tasripan, who is responsible for corporate banking, Omar S. Anwar (responsible for consumer banking) and K. Keat Lee (responsible for finance and strategy).
The bank's vice president, I Wayan Pugeg, has also been questioned three times. However, none of the four bankers were named suspects.
Neloe had little to say when arriving at the AGO building at around 9.10 a.m., accompanied by his lawyers from the Amir Syamsuddin law firm.
The Bank Mandiri chief merely said he was complying with the prosecutors' request to provide more information on alleged procedural irregularities in the extending of loans to 28 companies.
Neloe was still being questioned at 8 p.m.
Deputy Attorney General for Special Crimes Hendarman Supandji told The Jakarta Post that Neloe was being questioned as a witness and that the investigation was focused on his responsibility in respect of loan facilities extended by the bank.
However, Hendarman could not specify the total amount of the non-performing loans being investigated, saying that the Supreme Audit Agency (BPK) had not finished auditing the bank and the 22 companies that obtained the loans.
Prosecutors have said Bank Mandiri lent over Rp 1 trillion to four companies -- PT Siak Zamrud Pusaka (SZP), PT Citra Graha Nusantara/Tahta Medan (CGN/TM), PT Lativi Media Karya (LMK) and PT Artha Bhama Texindo/Artha Tri Mustika Texindo (ABM/ATM).
Four officers from the four companies have been named as suspects, including Nader Taher, a gubernatorial candidate in Riau Islands province.
Nader claimed he was the president director of PT Siak Zamrud when it obtained a loan worth US$4.7 million from Bank Mandiri, according to the prosecutors.
However, Siak Zamrud management denied their company owed money to Bank Mandiri, arguing that Nader had sold the company to a new owner before applying for the loan.
Responding to the denial, Hendarman confirmed that AGO investigators had also found that Nader was no longer linked with PT Siak Zamrud when he received the loan.
"Right now, I can't say whether we will remove PT Siak Zamrud from the list of Mandiri's debtors based on the latest information. Let's just wait for further investigations," Hendarman said.
Three other suspects -- Saiful, Diman Ponijan and Edison -- respectively a commissioner, director and the president director of PT CGN/TM, have been charged with fraudulently obtaining Rp 165 billion worth of loans from Bank Mandiri, the country's biggest bank in terms of assets.
Local TV broadcaster Lativi, owned by former manpower minister and businessman Abdul Latief, is also reported to have bad loans involving up to Rp 361 billion.
When asked why none of Bank Mandiri's directors had been declared suspects even though prosecutors had found procedural irregularities in the disbursement of the loans, Hendarman said, "Let's just wait for the results of their questioning".
The level of non-performing loans (NPLs) at Bank Mandiri in last year's third quarter reached 7.49 percent, above the ceiling of 5 percent set by Bank Indonesia.
In early January 2005, the bank refused to help state-owned paper producer PT Kertas Kraft Aceh (KAA), saying that injecting fresh funds into the company would likely put Mandiri at further risk.