The House of Representatives’ Bank Century inquiry committee will question Vice President Boediono next Tuesday to clarify the decision to bail out the bank last November.
Boediono was Bank Indonesia governor when the Rp 6.76 trillion (US$716.56 million) bailout decision was taken.
The decision to bailout ailing Bank Century was taken during a meeting between officials from Bank Indonesia and the Finance Ministry, with Boediono and Finance Minister Sri Mulyani Indrawati heading the meeting.
During the inquiry committee meeting Tuesday, legislators also agreed Mulyani would be questioned about her role in the bailout after Jan. 4, when they will resume work after the Christmas and New Year break.
The committee said the option of summoning President Susilo Bambang Yudhoyono was still on the table, depending on the development of the inquiry process.
The decision to salvage Bank Century with a bailout was highly controversial because the amount was a lot higher than the initial estimate of between Rp 600 billion and Rp 1 trillion.
“The BI governor and deputy governors at the time knew the reason for the issuance of short-term liquidity support [FPJP] for Bank Century,” the committee chairman, Idrus Marham from the Golkar
Party, said.
The issuing of the FPJP was cited as one of the initial regulatory violations by BI during the bailout decision-making process in a critical report by the Supreme Audit Agency (BPK).
The BPK’s audit says the justification for the Rp 689 billion FPJP was based on a possible fabrication by BI, which changed its own regulations concerning the minimum capital adequacy ratio (CAR), which banks must fulfill to be eligible for the FPJP, to 2.35 percent from 8 percent on Nov. 14 last year.
The audit also showed that Bank Century’s CAR stood at -3.53 percent on Oct. 31 last year. The BPK said with a negative CAR, Bank Century was not even eligible to request the FPJP.
In the policy-making phase to salvage the bank, the audit said during a meeting with the Finance Ministry, BI was not truthful about the dire condition of Bank Century.
The audit also said the issuing of the bailout fund to Bank Century after Dec. 18 in 2008 did not have any legal basis.
Boediono’s spokesperson Yopie Hidayat told The Jakarta Post he expected the inquiry to be conducted according to proper legal and ethical guidelines.
On Wednesday the committee will question officials from the BPK while on Thursday it will quiz officials from the Financial Transaction Analysis Center (PPATK).
The committee also decided that on Dec. 21, it would summon for questioning former BI governor Burhanuddin Abdullah and his deputies at the time, Miranda Goeltom and Aulia Pohan, along with former BPK chairman Anwar Nasution.
Aulia is the father of President Susilo Bambang Yudhoyono’s daughter-in-law, Anissa Pohan Yudhoyono. Aulia is currently serving a prison sentence for his involvement in a graft case.
The committee has also appointed 24 legal, finance and banking experts to be used as a panel of advisors. Among these experts are prominent economists such as Kwik Kian Gie, Dradjad Wibowo and Ichsanoodin Noorsy.
