Five former Bank Indonesia top officials, including two who are currently serving jail terms, are scheduled to attend Monday's hearing with the House of Representative's inquiry team on the Bank Century Rp 6.76 trillion (US$716 million) bailout funding.
Two former BI senior deputy governors, Miranda S. Goeltom and Anwar Nasution, as well as BI's former deputy director for banking supervision Sabar Anton Tarihoran, will join two convicted colleagues, former BI governor Burhanuddin Abdullah and former BI deputy governor Aulia T. Pohan, the father-in-law of President Susilo Bambang Yudhoyono's son.
The inquiry team will use their first hearing with former BI officials to target the bank's controversial policies on the approval of the merger of Bank Pikko, Bank Danpac and Bank CIC to form Bank Century during the 2001 to 2004 period.
BI approved that Chinkara Capital Ltd. acquire controlling stakes in these small-sized banks in 2001, although, according to an audit by the Supreme Audit Agency (BPK), Chinkara had failed to meet BI's regulatory requirements.
Before approval was given, according to the audit, the BI regulatory directorate said it could not guarantee that Chinkara was free of money laundering.
The BPK audit also said that BI insisted on the merger approval, initiated by then BI senior deputy governor Anwar, and then deputy governors Aulia and Miranda, as well as then director for banking supervision Siti Fadjrijah - now deputy governor for banking supervision.
Maruarar Sirait, a member of the inquiry team, said the presence of both Aulia and Abdullah was therefore important since the two were in charge during these events.
"We need them to temporarily leave the prison. They should explain to us how such a huge number of violations surrounding Bank Century could happen," he said Sunday.
The BPK's audit into the Bank Century bailout indicated several controversial central bank decisions to keep the ailing bank afloat.
Chinkara's controller, British citizen Rafat Ali Rizvi, is claimed to have said in a TV interview that Bank Century's main shareholder Robert Tantular, had close connections with BI top officials.
Meanwhile, BI spokeswoman Dyah N.K. Makhijani, said BI welcomed the meeting. "In fact, we are hoping that the inquiry conducted by the team will be able to produce clearer insights into this case."
Dyah promised that all the facts and background on the Bank Century merger would come out during the inquiry. (bbs)
