By Andi Abdussalam
Jakarta, Oct 29 (ANTARA) - When ailing Bank Century was taken over by the Deposit Insurance Agency (LPS) in September last year and the government moved by providing bail-out funds totaling Rp6.7 trillion , the bank's customers hoped they would get their money back soon.
However, the bank's customers had hoped in vain because until now, none of them has received refunds on his or her deposit. As a consequence, many of them suffered extreme stress while others attempted or committed suicide. Where did the Rp6.7 trillion in bailout funds go?
These facts raised serious questions among the public. People then also questioned the legal basis of the decision to provide the bailout funds in such a huge amount. The initial bailout amount discussed with the House of Representatives (DPR) was only Rp360 billion - Rp1.3 trillion.
The public discourse on the Bank Century case lately focused on the possibility of crimes having been committed in it. Moreover, former Vice President Jusuf Kalla early last month said that he had all along been against bailing out the bank as it would amount to "plain robbery."
A preliminary report to the House by the State Audit Board (BPK) also indicated that crimes had been committed in the Bank Century case. However, the Attorney General's Office said there were no indications of potential crimes in the BPK's report.
Therefore, an inquiry into the case by a DPR special committee was deemed necessary to assist the BPK in its investigation. "The use of the House's inquiry right can help BPK complete its probe into the matter," economic observer Dr Drajad Wibowo said.
Wibowo said he had suggested that the DPR use its inquiry right because there was inconsistency between the BPK report and the statement by the Attorney General's Office. BPK's investigative audit results indicated there were crimes while the statement of the deputy attorney general for special crimes said there was no potential crime in the report.
Indications of criminal offenses in the Bank Century case were revealed during a closed-door meeting of the DPR's Commission XI for financial affairs on Sept. 29, 2009 on the interim report of BPK. The House found that various banking crimes had taken place with the bank.
"The banking crimes included misappropriation of promissory notes, fictitious credits, violation of the maximum limit of credit provision (BNPK), fictitious spending and violation of the foreign exchange reserves requirement," Commission XI chairman Achmad Hafiz Zawawi said after the meeting.
The BPK's interim audit report also indicated that abuse of authority or error of judgment by Bank Indonesia (BI/the central bank) and the Financial Sector Stability Committee (KSSK) had also occurred causing the state to suffer conisderable financial losses.
Besides, there was an error of judgment at a meeting of the KSSK which had concluded that a collapse of Bank Century could have a systemic impact so that the injection funds which initially only amounted to Rp630 billion were increased to Rp6.76 trillion.
After all, the funds were disbursed under Government Regulation in lieu of Law No. 4 / 2008 on Financial System Safety Net (JPSK) which basically was never approved by the House.
With such a condition where the Attorney General's Office said there was no potential crimes involved, the DPR should form a special inquiry committee to help BPK complete its audit.
"An inquiry committee by DPR could help BPK complete its investigation," Drajad Wibowo said on the sidelines of a discussion on the establishment of a special committee on Bank Century scandal.
In order to bring light to the case, Megawati Soekarnoputri, leader of the Indonesian Democratic Party of Struggle (PDIP) ordered her cadres in the House to use their inquiry rights to investigate the disbursement of the Rp6.7 trillion bailout.
"The PDIP leader made the instruction in a leadership meeting today and it has been the party's decision," PDIP Secretary General Pramono Anung said on Wednesday (Oct 28, 2009).
Besides, PDIP will also set up a fact-finding team with the party to gather information on the real case of Bank Century so that the public would have transparent information about the Bank Century problem.
Pramono Anung said the PDIP faction in the House was serious with the formation of the inquiry committee but admitted this could not be done by the PDI faction alone. Therefore, Anung who is also a DPR deputy would lobby and hoped that other factions would support the initiative.
In the meantime, the United Development Party (PPP) faction said it was ready to support the establishment of a House special inquiry committee to thoroughly investigate the Bank Century case.
"We support efforts to probe into the Bank Century case and the efforts should be made as soon as possible ," Lukman Hakim Saefuddin, PPP Chairman, who is also a deputy of the People's Consultative Assembly (MPR), said.
He said that the BPK auditors had said they had found irregularities in the disbursement of Rp6.7 trillion to bail out the bank. The bailout amount was far bigger than the Rp1.3 trillion previously agreed with the House.
Lukman said the case must be followed up even if the BPK had not yet complete its investigation, and it was still facing difficulties in tracing the transfers of Bank Century customers' funds.
PPP faction chairman in the House Hasrul Azwar said his faction was ready to sponsor the establishment of the inquiry committee.
However, the faction chairman of the the Prosperous Justice Party (PKS) in the House, Mustafa Kamal is of the view that the results of the BPK auditing should be waited for before an inquiry committee was established.
He said there was a special mechanism that had to be met first such as deliberations in the DPR's Consultative Board and plenary sessions before the House could officially set up the committee.
"The PKS faction calls on us all to wait for the investigative auditing results of the BPK. We have asked it to do it. So, let's give it a chance to accomplish its task," he said.***1*** (T.A014/A/HAJM/17:00/a014)
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