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BLBI task force recovers Rp 30 trillion in state assets
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A pedestrian passes by the Bank Indonesia (BI) headquarters in Central Jakarta in this file photograph. (JP/Wienda Parwitasari)
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government task force has reclaimed some 30 percent of the assets stolen in the Bank Indonesia liquidity support (BLBI) scandal, which had its roots in the 1998 Asian financial crisis, and has redeployed some of the assets for local administrations, state agencies and ministries.
The BLBI task force, established two years ago to recover the embezzled assets through litigation, has so far recovered nearly 4,000 hectares of property across the country, valued at some Rp 30.6 trillion (US$2 million), from an undisclosed number of people. This makes up about 30 percent of the estimated Rp 110 trillion in state losses from the scandal.
“The task force will continue to intensify efforts to recover state assets from borrowers of [BLBI funds] and ensure that [nobody] holds state assets [unlawfully],” task force head Rionald Silaban, who is also state assets director general at the Finance Ministry, said on Tuesday.
The government handed over some 226.8 hectares of the land, worth Rp 1.8 trillion, to three provincial administrations – West Java, Banten and Palembang – and 14 ministries and state institutions, including the National Police.
West Java is planning to use one of the reallocated plots, of an undisclosed size, to build an ecotourism center, while the police are considering building or extending a police hospital on 9 hectares of recovered land in an undisclosed location.
During the 1997-1998 Asian financial crisis, Bank Indonesia (BI) disbursed funds to help banks meet liquidity needs to restore public confidence in the banking sector following a series of bank runs and a major slump in the value of the rupiah. It was later discovered that 95 percent of the Rp 144.5 trillion in BLBI funds disbursed to 48 commercial banks had been embezzled.
The Corruption Eradication Commission (KPK) has sent a number of people to prison on charges related to the scandal, but the recovery of the stolen state assets, particularly money that was converted into other types of assets or moved abroad, has been slow.
