Top House member disagrees with new BLBI audit plan

Top House member disagrees with new BLBI audit plan

The Jakarta Post, Jakarta

Chairman of the House of Representatives Commission IX on
state budget and finance Benny Pasaribu strongly rejected on
Friday the government's plan to appoint an international
consultant to audit past emergency loans channeled by Bank
Indonesia, saying that an independent audit had already been
conducted by the Supreme Audit Agency (BPK).

He said that since the BPK audit had been made based on the
instruction of the House, as one of the country's highest state
institutions, the appointment of a new auditor by the government
would only "damage" the state system and create an image of
distrust in the work of BPK.

"As the Chairman of House Commission IX, I disagree with the
plan to appoint a new auditor," Benny told The Jakarta Post.

"What we need now is action based on BPK's audit findings," he
added.

Minister of Finance Boediono said earlier this week that the
government planned a new audit to calculate the costs the
government and the central bank must each bear over the huge Rp
144.5 trillion in (US$14 billion) emergency loans (popularly
called BLBI) channeled to troubled banks at the peak of the 1997
financial crisis.

Several legislators said earlier that such an audit was no
longer needed, what was required was action to push for a
criminal investigation into alleged corruption of the huge loans.

Legislators argued that the government and Bank Indonesia (BI)
had already reached an agreement last year whereby BI would cover
Rp 24.5 trillion of the loans, while the remainder would be
shouldered by the government.

According to last year's BPK audit report, some Rp 138.4
trillion of the loans had been abused, which the agency blamed on
BI's weak supervision.

There have been concerns that the BLBI case would be swept
under the carpet given the powerful people involved in what might
be the country's largest ever corruption case.

In a related development, Bank Indonesia Governor Sjahril
Sabirin insisted that the appointment of the new auditor was
based on the recommendation of House Commission IX.

But Benny rejected this, saying that the commission had only
urged both the government and the central bank to quickly resolve
the burden-sharing issue based on BPK's audit and last year's
agreement made during negotiations facilitated by the commission.

Asked about the reason for holding a meeting with the Supreme
Advisory Council (DPA) on Thursday, Sjahril said he felt that the
DPA needed sufficient information about the BLBI case to allow it
to implement its job properly.

DPA gives advice to the President on various matters.

After the meeting, both Sjahril and DPA Chairman Ahmad
Tirtosudiro, regarded as one of the country's most senior
politicians, said that it was important for the government and
Bank Indonesia to strive for consensus on the BLBI case, which
had been dragging on for almost two years.