A hearing between a parliamentary inquiry team into the Bank Century bailout and the Supreme Audit Agency (BPK) has devolved into puerile jostling by the former as they prioritize their party lines over actually doing their job.
At Wednesday’s hearing at the House of Representatives, legislators constantly attempted to turn the line of questioning onto Finance Minister Sri Mulyani Indrawati’s role in the decision to bail out Century to the tune of Rp 6.76 trillion (US$716 million).
Other members came off as facetious, asking completely unrelated questions, and all this while the BPK data at hand showed clear breaches by Bank Indonesia.
Just minutes after committee chairman Idrus Marham, from the Golkar Party, opened the proceedings, some legislators began arguing among themselves about other matters.
Each time Hasan Bisri, the BPK member who led the investigative audit, mentioned the meeting to decide on the bailout, some legislators or other would interrupt to demand he name the person who chaired the meeting.
Hasan would give only an initial, but the legislators insisted, “You should mention her name.”
“It was Mulyani,” Hasan conceded.
The decision to bail out the ailing Century was made during a meeting between officials from BI and the Finance Ministry in November last year, which then BI governor Boediono (now the Vice President) and Mulyani headed.
The inquiry committee will question Vice President Boediono next Tuesday, while Mulyani will be summoned after Jan. 4.
Rather than focus on the audit, some of the committee members engaged in long-winded debates with one another over the requirement for the BPK to hand over a recording that could shed light on what had transpired at the bailout decision meeting.
Throughout most of the hearing, the Democratic Party questioned the validity of the BPK’s audit, which the party’s Achsanul Kosasih said was of a low quality.
Fellow Democrat Benny Kabur Harman, following up on his colleague’s statement, was called impudent by Gayus Lumbuun, from the Indonesian Democratic Party of Struggle (PDI-P), which led to a brief verbal spat between the two.
In the actual audit, the BPK indicated the real reason for saving the bank may have been the vested interests of central bank officials.
During a board of governors’ meeting on Nov. 20 last year, then BI deputy governor S. Budi Rochadi suggested the central bank pay “more attention” to Century, as some funds from the BI Employee Welfare Foundation (YKK-BI) were deposited with the bank.
Another BI deputy governor during that time, Siti Fadjrijah, echoed Budi and said several state enterprises had also deposited their money with the troubled bank.
The BPK’s Hasan said there was about Rp 80 billion in the YKK-BI account at Century.
BI spokeswoman Dyah N.K. Makhijani told The Jakarta Post she could not comment on the case.
None of the facts pointed out by the BPK was picked up on by the squabbling legislators.
One of them, Golkar’s Agun Gunanjar Sudarsa, said he believed the hearing with the BPK had been allowed to devolve to the point of being useless in the investigation of the bailout.
“This hearing has been rigged,” he said.
“There’s been no progress at all in following up on the BPK’s findings.” (bbs)
| 
|
|
|
|
|
|
|