Councilors `pawn' duty letters for bank loans

SEMARANG: Some new members of the Central Java Legislative Council, who were installed on Sept. 3, 2009, have "pawned" their appointment letters as collateral to obtain bank loans.

Nyaryanto, head of the Central Java Bank, said Friday that 20 of the 100 council members have filed loan applications.

All of their requests have been approved by the Central Java administration-owned bank, he added.

"They are all new faces in the council for this *2009-2014* period," Nyaryanto said.

He said none of the incumbent councilors re-elected in the April legislative elections had made similar applications.

He said the new councilors applied for loans amounting to between Rp 100 million and Rp 150 million each.

Nyaryanto said the debtors would generally use their loans to start businesses or renovate their houses.

"Most of the debtors come from outside Semarang and are businesspeople," he added.

He said the Central Java Bank had agreed to cooperate with the council's secretariat to disburse loans for councilors.

Under the cooperation agreement, the bank is allowed to directly deduct credit installments from the councilors' monthly salaries. -JP