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.