Megawati told to suspend IBRA chairman
Megawati told to suspend IBRA chairman
Dadan Wijaksana, The Jakarta Post, Jakarta
President Megawati Soekarnoputri should immediately suspend
chairman of the Indonesian Bank Restructuring Agency (IBRA) I
Putu Gede Ary Suta to allow an investigation into suspected
irregularities within the agency during the past year, according
to outspoken economist Faisal Basri.
He said that irregularities in the sale of assets held by IBRA
and the lack of transparency in the selection process of
consultants could cause the state to suffer huge losses.
"This (suspension) needs to be done immediately so as to
protect the remaining assets under IBRA's supervision," Faisal
was quoted by detik.com on Thursday during a press gathering held
by private think-tank Institute for Development of Economics and
Finance (Indef) to discuss IBRA's performance.
The statement came amid reports that the sale of the publicly
listed car assembler PT Indomobil Sukses International in
December to a PT Trimegah Securities-led consortium was done
improperly due to the very low price, and suspicion that the
Salim Group's founding owner was actually behind the transaction.
The government has barred Salim from repurchasing assets
pledged to IBRA to repay debts to the government.
After only two weeks of negotiations, IBRA on Dec. 10 last
year, sold a 73.63 percent stake in the country's second largest
car maker to the consortium at Rp 624.5 per share, giving the
agency Rp 452 billion in total proceeds.
As the Indomobil shares had a price tag of Rp 2,500 per unit
when Salim transferred the company to IBRA in 1999, it is
calculated the state had lost at least Rp 1.7 trillion in
possible revenue.
Worse still, an evaluation report handed out by auditor
PricewaterCoopers (PwC) has stated that the agency could have
earned twice the amount it received from the transaction.
According to the report, the total value that IBRA could have
gained would be Rp 1.21 trillion. However, the report does not
provide details.
Dradjat H. Wibowo, fellow economist of Indef concurred, saying
that past asset sales under PT Holdiko Perkasa may have caused a
loss of Rp 13.1 trillion to the state.
Holdiko was set up by IBRA to handle the sales of assets
previously belonging to the Salim Group.
Ary Suta was installed as the chief of IBRA in June last year,
becoming the sixth chairman during the agencies' four years of
existence.
The previous five were: Edwin Gerungan, Cacuk Sudarijanto,
Glenn Yusuf, Iwan Prawiranata and Bambang Subianto.
IBRA controls over Rp 600 trillion worth of assets transferred
by indebted bank owners and is mandated to restructure or sell
the assets to raise cash to help finance the state budget
deficit.