By Andi Abdussalam
Jakarta, Feb 11 (ANTARA) - The government may face a corruption charge if it implements an agreement it has reached with members of the Financial Affairs Commission of the House Representatives (DPR) which puts the amount of debts of Bank Indonesia liquidity assistance (BLBI) debtors at Rp2.297 trillion.
The government has previously stated that seven BLBI debtors still owed the state Rp9.3 trillion. Thus, the state will suffer a loss of about Rp7 trillion if the government implements the decision it reached recently with the House's Financial Commission, which set the seven debtors' debts at Rp2.297 trillion.
"I am now reminding the government of a possible legal problem arising later on. This is because there would be possible parties who later on view that the debtors' Rp9.3 trillion debts have been reduced to Rp2.297 trillion that cost the state Rp7 trillion," Dradjad H Wibowo of the House Commission XI, which deals with financial affairs, said.
He said that the Rp2.297 trillion was illogical and the reduction of Rp7 trillion could be viewed as benefiting the debtors. In this case, there are elements of state losses, parties who enjoy them while some authority was being used in the process.
Thus, the elements of violation of an article in the corruption crimes are met. "This could later on invite legal experts or the attorney general to consider the case worth investigating," Wibowo said.
The BLBI refers to emergency liquidity credits extended by BI, the central bank, to commercial banks during the financial crisis which began in mid 1997. The credits were extended under the government's blanket guarantee program. Of the Rp144.5 trillion BLBI had extended since 1997, Rp51.7 trillion had turned bad.
The government had since tried to solve the BLBI problem but has met with still unsurmounted difficulties to fully recover the state assets. Though some of the bad debt cases have been settled, others remained unresolved. The amounts of the recovered as well as the yet-to-be recovered credits even remained unclear.
There are at least three versions on the amounts of credits given to seven debtors that had remained bad. The first version is based on debt-acknowledgment's notes (Akta Pengakuan Utang -APU) of seven BLBI debtors, which, including interest and fines, amounted to Rp9.4 trillion.
The second version put the amounts of the bad credits at RP2.54 trillion. This amount derived from the APU notes but minus interest and fines. The interest and fines were not included based on the assumption the debtors had not failed to pay their debts.
The third version is based on the result of audits by the State Audit Board (BPK) which put the amount of the bad BLBI debts at Rp2.297 trillion.
It seems the government has agreed to the third version based on the BPK audits which put the amount of the bad BLBI credits at Rp2.297 trillion.
Wibowo said that the Rp93 trillion version included the interest and fines of seven debtors' bad credits while the RP2.297 trillion of the BPK version excluded the interest and the fines.
"The government needs to verify the two versions because debates over the two versions are still going on," Wibowo said.
Finance Minister Sri Mulyani said recently the government and the Commission XI had agreed that the total amount of the seven obligors' debts was Rp2.297 trillion. She said the figure was based on BPK verifications.
The seven debtors with Rp2.297 trillion consist of James and Adipura who owe the state Rp303 million, Atang Latief Rp155.72 billion, Ullung Bursa Rp424.64 billion, Omar Putihrai Rp159,1 billion, Marimutu Sinivasan Rp790,557 billion, Agus Anwar Rp577,813 billion and Lidya Muchtar Rp189,039 billion.
It was reported that some of the seven debtors have handed over assets to the state to cover their debts. For example, Omar Putihrai who owed the state Rp159.1 billion had handed over an asset which according to an independent appraisal was worth Rp158 billion.
Agus Anwar who has debts valued at rp577.813 billion has surrendered a plot of land worth Rp64.3 billion. Lidya Muchtar with debts worth Rp189.039 billion had turned over assets worth Rp561 million.
Thus, about 9.71 percent of the assets had been recovered. "We have recovered Rp223.01 billion of the 2.297 trillion BLBI credits, or about 9.71 percent," the minister said.
The DPR's Consultative Body (Bamus) at a meeting last month decided to invite President Yudhoyono to come to the parliament on February 12 to answer questions on the BLBI issue.
The Bamus's decision would be used as the formal basis for the DPR leadership to invite the President. The invitation to the President was sent on February 1, 2008.
A number of DPR members had proposed that the House exercise its interpellation right over the BLBI case. The DPR had formed a team of 13 legislators from various factions to draw up a list of questions to be addressed to the president.
According to the House's BLBI inquiry team, the BLBI credits plus other funds provided in connection with the policy then taken to restructure national banks have cost the state Rp702.5 trillion.
Of the amount, the BLBI accounted for Rp144.5 trillion, banking recapitulation bonds Rp425.5 trillion, guaranteeing program Rp73.8 trillion, bail out funds Rp4.9 trillion and BI escrow account 502 worth Rp53.8 trillion. (T.A014/A/HNG/B003).
(T.SYS/A/A014/B003) 11-02-2008 22:32:28
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