Two important BLBI documents go missing
JAKARTA (JP): Two important documents of the Bank Indonesia believed to contain information that could help reveal the violations of the central bank regulations in the extending of emergency loans scam during the period from 1997 to 1999 are mysteriously missing.
Spokesman to the Attorney General's Office Muljohardjo said on Monday that an investigation by the Supreme Audit Agency (BPK) disclosed that the directors' meeting notes on Aug. 15, 1997 and Aug. 20, 1997 cannot be found in the central bank's files.
"The policy to extend the liquidity supports was taken based on the results of these two meetings. It's strange that such well organized filed documents could have gone missing.
"The prosecutors will summon those involved in the meetings to clarify this," he told journalists at his office.
The case centers around the misuse or malfeasance in channeling some Rp 144.5 trillion (US$15.3 billion) in liquidity supports to 48 commercial banks to help them cope with massive runs during the bleakest period of the country's economical crisis.
An investigative audit by BPK stated that some 95 percent of the emergency loans had either been misused or were extended against banking regulations.
Former BI governor Soedradjad Djiwandono, who held the post when the alleged corruption took place, was again questioned on Monday over the loan disbursement to the now defunct PT Bank Dagang Negara Indonesia (BDNI).
The bank received some Rp 37 trillion in liquidity support from Oct. 15. 1997 to Jan. 29. 1999. Prosecutors found that some Rp 4 trillion of the sum were misused by the bank's director Sjamsul Nursalim, who is a suspect in the case.
Muljohardjo said that Soedradjad was also posed with questions over the policy of the central bank on disbursing the liquidity support during the five-hour-long session.
"The prosecutors, Baringin Sianturi and Suhartoyo, also asked about the criteria in extending the funds to the banks, which are based on the directors' meetings on Aug. 15 and Aug. 20, 1997, whether the disbursement was in accordance with the directors' ruling," he explained.
Asked by reporters, Soedradjad claimed there was no wrongdoing in the loan disbursement.
He said he was also questioned as a witness in connection with another loan scam by the central bank's subsidiaries overseas, the Amsterdam-based N.V. Indover Bank and its affiliate Hong Kong-based Indover Asia Ltd.
The scandal has inflicted some $1 billion in state losses.
Former head of the Supreme Advisory Council A.A. Baramuli was also questioned on Monday as a witness over a $1.5 million loan scandal which was disbursed by Indover Bank to his wife's company PT United Coconut Indonesia (PT Unicotin).(bby)