Govt's BLBI excuse no good: MPs

Lilian Budianto ,  The Jakarta Post ,  Jakarta   |  Thu, 04/03/2008 1:37 AM  |  National

Lawmakers have voiced dissatisfaction with the government's formal explanation about its failure to resolve the Bank Indonesia liquidity support (BLBI) funds embezzlement.

The lawmakers said Wednesday they would submit their official response with the House of Representatives leadership on Thursday to determine their next actions against the government over the huge graft scandal.

Legislator Dradjad Wibowo of the National Mandate Party (PAN) said the government had been cooperative in publishing the list of bad debtors and the status of several dubious accounts related to the BLBI funds.

But it failed to convince lawmakers about its follow-up actions against the fraudulent debtors, he said.

He said the government's ban on bad debtors from traveling abroad was nonsense because most of them had long since fled Indonesia.

"If the government were serious about handling the case, it would have caught the bad debtors, instead of imposing useless travel bans," Dradjad told a news conference at the House.

The government's response to the House's second query into its efforts to resolve the BLBI scandal was read out by Finance Minister Sri Mulyani at a House plenary session Tuesday.

In addition to the travel bans, the government said it would seize and auction off the debtors' assets this year and threatened to detain those failing to cooperate.

The Finance Ministry has also been authorized to pursue civil lawsuits against the owners of 12 closed banks to recover some of the total Rp 650 trillion (US$69.8 billion) in state assets lost under the BLBI program.

Police and prosecutors lacked sufficient evidence to bring criminal charges against 12 of the 16 banks accused of swindling BLBI loans.

Ade Daud Nasution of the Star Reform Party criticized the government's plan to proceed with the civil cases, saying it had deliberately ignored facts that could make the bad debtors face criminal charges.

Other legislators who will submit their official response include Abdullah Azwar Anas of the National Awakening Party (PKB), Yuddy Chrisnandi and Joeslin Nasution, both from Golkar Party, and two lawmakers from the Crescent Star Party (PBB), Nizar Dahlan and Ali Mochtar Ngabalin.

Under the House's standing orders, a move to bring a motion for discussion at a plenary session must get support from at least 13 legislators.

The plenary session will later decide whether to accept or reject their motion. If a motion is accepted, the House's factions are required to state their further actions against the government.

Dradjad said one option for each faction was to set a deadline for the government to prove it managed to settle the BLBI criminal and civil cases.

Ade Daud said the House could resort to impeachment if the government failed to meet the deadline.

Last month, at least 55 legislators submitted a proposal to the House for an inquiry into the government over the BLBI scandal.

Dradjad said the House was scheduled to hear the inquiry petition after it ended its recess period in May.

The House will begin a one-month recess on April 11.

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