AGO pledges to probe BLBI, top graft cases

The Jakarta Post ,  Jakarta   |  Thu, 06/21/2007 9:52 AM

Alvin Darlanika Soedarjo, The Jakarta Post, Jakarta

The Attorney General's Office pledged Wednesday to further investigate allegations of corruption surrounding the settlement of Bank Indonesia Liquidity Support (BLBI) funds and a number of other unsettled high-profile graft cases.

""Our recent meeting with the attorney general yielded a stronger commitment to examine BLBI cases in which we will examine each of the cases carefully,"" said Kemas Yahya Rahman, secretary to the junior attorney general for special crimes.

""We already have a good picture on which cases should be our priority. However, we cannot reveal the individual cases yet,"" he told a media conference.

The BLBI funds were illegally made available by the then-president Soeharto when the Asian financial crisis hit Indonesia in mid 1997 in order to keep unhealthy local banks afloat in the wake of the massive withdrawal of foreign capital from the country.

During the crisis, the government disbursed some Rp 145 trillion (US$16 billion), of which substantial chunks have yet to be returned. The debtors consist of tycoons and bankers -- cronies of Soeharto -- who received government settlements and those who were already fully indebted to the state.

""We will also examine some debt settlement letters issued by the Indonesian Banks Restructuring Agency (IBRA), which were received by some debtors,"" he added.

The AGO, which lacks the financial expertise needed for the investigation, has said it will consult the Finance Ministry if the cases prove to be civil in nature. ""The AGO will form a team of about 35 prosecutors from all of its offices in the country,"" Kemas said.

In addition to the BLBI case, prosecutors have also vowed to complete the investigations into several outstanding corruption cases within three months.

The cases involve the National Logistics Agency (Bulog), the agribusiness market in Surabaya, the National Aeronautics and Space Agency (Lapan), the BNI 46 and TNI's Asabri Pension Fund.

""We're investigating three cases involving Bulog, while for the Lapan case, we already have a suspect,"" Kemas said, adding that the AGO had also identified corruption allegations at Bank Bukopin, from which the state could suffer some Rp 60 billion in losses.

The prosecutors have planned to summon former Bulog chairman and graft suspect Widjanarko Puspoyo for the Bukopin case as Bulog is the bank's biggest shareholder with a 38 percent stake in the financial institution, Kemas said.

Widjanarko's lawyer Bonaran Situmeang told reporters the AGO should discontinue confiscating his client's assets until it can provide the official figure of the inflicted state losses. Widjanarko was suspected of misappropriating the funds from a 2001 cattle import deal from Australia and receiving gratification money from rice import deals with a Vietnamese firm.

""The Supreme Audit Agency, the AGO and the Development Finance Comptroller are yet to tell us the exact figure of state losses,"" Bonaran said.

Meanwhile, AGO spokesman Salman Maryadi said the office would select 35 qualified prosecutors for its special team to investigate the BLBI and outstanding corruption cases. ""We might split the team into two. One to probe BLBI and the other for the outstanding corruption cases,"" he said.

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