INDONESIA'S BANK LIQUIDITY CREDITS TRAP LAW ENFORCERS

By Andi Abdussalam

Jakarta, March 3 (ANTARA) - Allegations that corruption is rampant in Indonesia's law-making and law-enforcing institutions were proven again on Sunday when the Corruption Eradication Commission (KPK) arrested a prosecutor who was caught red-handed receiving a bribe worth US$600,000.

        For a long time, the public has been holding the belief that legal institutions in Indonesia, a country rated as one of the most corrupt nations in the world, are home to corrupters.

        Thus, it came as no surprise, when the State Audit Board (BPK) came up two or three years ago with a report that Rp31.5 billion of Bank Indonesia (BI)'s funds had flowed to members of the House of Representatives (DPR), and another sum amounting to Rp68.5 billion were cashed through several checks and transferred to individual law enforces at the Attorney General's Office (AGO).

        The money was transferred through a middleman in an effort to stop the legal process that befell BI officials involved in BI's liquidity assistance (BLBI) case.

        On Sunday (March 2) at 4:30 pm, KPK agents caught Urip Tri Gunawan red-handed receiving a bribe of US$600,000 from AS in a house in South Jakarta. Gunawan is the former head of a team of 35 prosecutors that had investigated a Bank Indonesia Liquidity Assistance debtor's case.

        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 of BLBI loans issued 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.

        One version mentioned the result of audits by the State Audit Board (BPK) which put the amount of the bad BLBI debts at Rp2.297 trillion.

        But according to the House's BLBI inquiry team, the BLBI credits plus other funds provided in connection with the policy then adopted to restructure national banks had cost the state Rp702.5 trillion, of the amount, Rp144.5 trillion were BLBI credits.

        Amid effort to solve the BLBI problem, prosecutor Gunawan was arrested, allegedly linked to a BLBI case. This was a big shame to the government. KPK agents caught him red-handed receiving a bribe amounting to US$660,000 from a lady known by her initials as AS in a house in South Jakarta. It was found later, based on the account of the chief of the neighborhood association, Sambiyo, that the house belonged to Sjamsul Nursalim, a BLBI debtor.

        The arrest was made only two days after the Attorney General's Office announced that it had terminated its investigation into the BLBI cases involving the owners of Bank Central Asia (BCA) and Bank Dagang Nasional on the ground that its investigators had not found any indications of corruption in the bankers' efforts to settle their debts to the state. The prosecutors' investigating team was also dissolved.

        Lawmaker Aulia Rahman said the arrest of a prosecutor for alleged bribery was a shame to President Susilo Bambang Yudhoyono's administration as the case showed a law enforcer himself to have committed a shameful criminal act.

        "The prosecutor's arrest smears the government's image," Aulia Rahman, a member of the House of Representatives (DPR)'s Commission III dealing with legal affairs, said.

        Aulia Rahman said the attorney general must take stern action against Urip and his superior. "His superior must also be acted against. His superior is his commandant, isn't he?," the lawmaker said , adding: "If need be, his superior should be suspended."

        Junior Attorney General for Special Crimes Kemas Yahya Rahman said however that Gunawan's case is an individual one and had nothing to do with the AGO as an institution. "The AGO as an institution is absolutely not involved. I guarantee that it (receiving the bribe) is a deed involving an individual," Kemas said.

        In the meantime, Attorney General Hendarman Supandji said he would take stern measures against anybody in his office implicated in the alleged bribery of public prosecutor Gunawan who had handled the case of a Bank Indonesia Liquidity Assistance (BLBI) debtor.

        "It is possible other prosecutors ordered him (to take the bribe) or participated in the bribery deal," Supandji said at a press conference on Urip Tri Gunawan's arrest.

        Shedding tears and breathing heavily, Supanji haltingly said he was deeply hurt by the arrest of one of his subordinates for bribery.

        He said he had ordered Junior Attorney General for Supervision Affairs MS Rahardjo to conduct an internal investigation in the Attorney General's Office (AGO) and to coordinate with the KPK to clarify and further investigate the case.

        Supandji said if the bribery had really happened, he would act against whoever in his office was involved, including (Urip)'s immediate superiors, colleagues and subordinates "without mercy."

        He called on the KPK to give the heaviest possible punishment to his subordinates who were involved in unlawful acts. "The KPK should file the heaviest charges against my subordinates who committed unlawful acts," he said. (T.A014/A/HAJM/A/E002) (T.A014/A/A014/A/E002) 03-03-2008 21:46:05