A statement made by former vice president Jusuf Kalla, when he testified before the House of Representatives' inquiry committee the other day, was really intriguing. He said Sri Mulyani, the finance minister and chairwoman of the Financial Stability System Committee (KSSK), felt she was manipulated by Bank Indonesia (BI) regarding the final amount of the bailout of Bank Century.
Jusuf Kalla said she said this when the latter met him in September, 2009, saying the bailout had previously been worth Rp 63.2 billion (US$6.32 million) when it was decided on Nov. 21, 2008 but, later on, increased to Rp 6.7 trillion.
This, in fact, strengthens a statement that the case, involving the former top BI officials, has made the image of the central bank looks very negative, as corruption has seemingly occurred since the Bank Century merger in 2003 due to ineffective control of the bank.
As regards an effective control, one might recall, in October, 2003 when then president Megawati Soekarnoputri's finance minister (Boediono) proposed the establishment of an independent supervisory board in order to oversee the performance of the central bank and altogether strike a balance between the central bank's independence and accountability.
But the BI's board of governors outrightly rejected the idea and said the proposal should be postponed for at least five years. The central bank governor at the time, Burhanuddin Abdullah, took over the position in May, 2003 to replace the imprisoned Sjahril Sabirin.
The ineffectiveness of control shows the meager accountability and transparency on the part of the country's central bank, already plagued by three of its former governors and deputy governors and other high-ranking officials' imprisonment for graft cases.
Two pieces of evidence, at least, have been uncovered during the recent House inquiry committee hearings. One with regard to the Deposit Insurance Agency (LPS) commission board chairman Rudjito, who said that the LPS injected the cash to Bank Century based on BI's data.
The LPS did so because BI was the only authorized institution. The other one concerns the then police's chief of detectives, Susno Duadji, who said he also went to BI prior to arresting the Bank Century president director, Robert Tantular, to ask for cooperation, but BI officials said they did not have any proof of Robert's crimes.
As the Bank Century case has now come under a daily spotlight, the deputy governor of BI, Darmin Nasution, proposes to amend Article 34 of the BI law regarding supervision. But public reaction has been negative, saying BI should not revise the law partially, but comprehensively, in order to be more accountable.
It is really an irony to see the independent BI has not been reformed (including during Boediono's "short-lived" tenure) although the opportunity has been wide open. Its board of govenors seem to be dissatisfied with their already ballooning salary of Rp 2.5 billion ($275,000) per year for the govenor, and a little less for deputy governors. Such non-existence of a supervisory board, according to Susno Duadji, has, first, made it easy for Robert Tantular to rob his own bank, and for the Rp 6.7 trillion of state money to flow into Bank Century; and second, for a taxi driver in Jakarta and an automotive workshop in Makassar to receive Rp 200 billion and Rp 33 billion respectively (to mention just two among the many recipients).
Finally, two conclusions are worth noting, first, as long as there is no functioning independent supervision, the BI governor's seat is "hot" for those who sit on it, and second, power and money are comfortable (as shown above with the $275,000 salary.
M. Rusdi
Jakarta
| 
|
|
|
|
|
|
|