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.