Sigit Pramono named BNI president in major reshuffle

Sigit Pramono named BNI president in major reshuffle

Rendi A. Witular and Abdul Kholik, The Jakarta Post, Jakarta

Shareholders of troubled state-owned Bank Negara Indonesia
(BNI) decided on Monday to fire seven of the bank's nine-member
board of directors, and appointed Sigit Pramono as new president
of the country's second-largest bank in terms of assets.

The move, taken during an extraordinary shareholders meeting,
followed the recent revelation of a high-profile lending fraud
involving Rp 1.7 trillion (US$200 million).

Sigit, 45, is currently the president of publicly listed Bank
Internasional Indonesia (BII), the country's fourth-largest bank
in terms of assets, which has recently been acquired by Kookmin
Bank of South Korea and Temasek Holdings Pte. of Singapore.

Sigit, who succeeds outgoing president Saifuddien Hasan, was
reported to have strong support from State Minister of State
Enterprises Laksamana Sukardi. The government controls a 99
percent stake in BNI, with the remaining shares in the hands of
public investors.

During the meeting, shareholders also agreed to maintain Arwin
Rasyid as BNI vice president and I. Supomo as director. Arwin
was also one of the leading candidates for the top position at
the bank.

Other newly appointed directors include three BNI career
officials: Fero Poerbonegoro, Achmad Baiquni and Suroto Muhadji;
three Bank Mandiri officials: Bien Soebiantoro, Kemal Ranadireksa
and Tjahjana Tjakrawinata and one central bank official: Achil
Ridwan Djajadiningrat.

BNI shareholders, however, have decided to maintain the bank's
current commissioners, although many analysts and legislators
previously urged the government to dismiss them as well due to
failure in effectively supervising the bank.

In order to help boost supervision, however, shareholders
appointed additional commissioners including Drajad Hari Wibowo
(economist), Ahyar Ilyas (former central bank deputy governor),
and Yap Tjay Soen.

Shares in BNI were unchanged on Monday at Rp 100 per share on
the Jakarta Stock Exchange.

During the meeting, BNI shareholders also approved the bank's
plan to launch a secondary offering of its shares to the public
next year and to conduct a quasi-reorganization based on the June
30, 2003, financial report.

Quasi-reorganization is accounting engineering aimed at
erasing a company's accumulated losses by reevaluating its assets
based on present value, so that it can pay dividend. BNI had
accumulated losses of Rp 58.9 trillion as of the first semester
of this year.

Meanwhile, the National Police said that Maria Pauline Lumowa,
the main suspect in the BNI fraud, had refused to come to Jakarta
for questioning, and that she was only willing to be questioned
in Singapore.

Deputy chief of the public relations division Brig. Gen.
Soenarko said the refusal was because she felt more secure in
Singapore than in Indonesia.

However, he said the police would not send its officials to
Singapore because such a move was not the correct procedure.