Police may still investigate Sjahril, Suta

Police may still investigate Sjahril, Suta

Sandy Darmosumarto, The Jakarta Post, Jakarta

National Police chief of detectives Comr. Gen. Erwin Mappaseng
said the police would soon question former Bank Indonesia (BI)
Governor Sjahril Sabirin and former BPPBN chairman I Gede Putu
Ary Suta for their roles in the alleged misuse of Rp 20.9
trillion (US$2.4 billion) from BI's Account No. 502.

Aside Sjahril and Suta, investigators would also summon
another former Indonesian Bank Restructuring Agency (IBRA)
official Cacuk Sudarijanto, the police officer said.

Mappaseng, however, did not say if the three would be
questioned as suspects or witnesses. Nor did he reveal the exact
date when they would be questioned.

Marwan Effendi of the Jakarta Prosecutor's Office mistakenly
announced on Sunday that Sjahril and Suta had been declared
suspects in the high profile scandal.

Police investigators, however, denied the allegation on
Monday, insisting that investigations were still underway and
that the legal status of both Sjahril and Suta had not been
decided.

Sjahril and Suta both said the news about them being named
suspects in the Account 502 scandal came as a surprise because
the police had never conducted an investigation involving them.

The Jakarta Prosecutor's Office received a notification letter
from the National Police headquarters on Sept. 29, 2003 stating
their intention to investigate Sjahril and Suta regarding their
involvement in the scandal.

Deputy director of the National Police graft unit, Sr. Comr.
Marsudhi Hanafi, said last week that the police had already sent
another notification letter to the Jakarta Prosecutor's Office
regarding an investigation of a former IBRA chairman and one of
his deputies. However, he did not specify the names of the former
officials.

Marsudhi was referring to a case tied to Account No. 502 in
which over Rp 410 billion was improperly channeled between two
banks. The two financial institutions were Bank Prasida Niaga and
Bank Uppindo.

IBRA took Bank Uppindo, whose majority ownership laid with the
central bank, under its wing in 1999 after BI declared it
insolvent.

At the time, Bank Uppindo owed Bank Prasida Niaga Rp 334.3
billion, which was due in March 1999. Bank Indonesia told IBRA
not to disburse the money demanded by Bank Prasida Niaga to cover
money it had lent to Bank Uppindo. Nevertheless, IBRA disbursed
Rp 410.6 billion to Bank Prasida Niaga -- an amount exceeding
what it lent to Bank Uppindo.

Marsudi stated that "a different investigating team was
handling the misuse of the Rp 410 billion case."

"We have to see the overall structure of the account. How much
money was supposed to enter the account, and what is the correct
procedure to withdraw money from it," he said.

"Our investigation follows up the audit process taken by the
Supreme Audit Agency in which the agency found irregularities,"
he said.

Mapasseng said on Tuesday that the number of suspects would
swell as the investigation continued.

"We have a system in our investigations. Declaring certain
people as suspects is only a small part of the overall process.
They are only technicalities. Concentrating on certain
individuals may prevent the public from understanding the essence
of the case," he explained.