Century team to summon Boediono and Sri Mulyani

The Bank Century inquiry committee is questioning Vice President Boediono and Finance Minister Sri Mulyani on their decision to issue Rp 6.76 trillion (US$716 million) in bailouts.

The decision to summon Mulyani and Boediono was made during the first plenary meeting of the House of Representatives committee in Jakarta on Monday.

Mulyani and Boediono decided to salvage the bank during a meeting in November last year. During that time, Boediono was the Bank Indonesia governor.

Mulyani and Boediono said their motives were nothing more than to save the nation by preventing a possible systemic downfall of the country’s banking system by saving Bank Century during the global financial crisis.

Economists and legislators at the House’s finance commission, however, have doubted their reasoning, citing that Bank Century was a small and insignificant bank. Legislators also questioned the bailout, because its amount was much higher than the amount agreed by the House, which ranged between Rp 600 billion and Rp 1 trillion.

An audit report from the Supreme Audit Agency (BPK), recently submitted to the House, also said there might have been a number of procedural violations conducted during the bailout process.