Asia Times: Baligate: And then there were seven



	September 25, 1999	atimes.com

Southeast Asia

Baligate: And then there were seven

JAKARTA - A parliamentary committee investigating the Bank Bali scandal has released the names of 13 suspects, including seven senior government officials.

Committee chairman Lili Asdjudiredja said the committee would urge President B J Habibie to fire A A Baramuli, chairman of the Supreme Advisory Board (DPA), which gives advice to the president; Finance Minister Bambang Subianto; Minister in charge of State Enterprise Tanri Abeng; Bank Indonesia Governor Sjahril Sabirin; chairman of the Indonesian Bank Restructuring Agency (IBRA) Glenn M Yusuf; and IBRA vice chairmen Pande Lubis and Farid Haryanto.

Lili said the authorities should probe the officials as well as the six other suspects, who are bankers and business leaders. They should be brought to court for allegedly colluding in embezzling Rp940 billion ($106 million) in funds belonging to Bank Bali, which is now controlled by the IBRA.

Baramuli, known to be close to Habibie and a senior official of the ruling Golkar party, has repeatedly denied his involvement in the scandal first brought to the surface by a banking legal expert, Pradjoto, at the end of July.

The allegation was confirmed in a parliamentary hearing by the former president of Bank Bali, Rudy Ramli, who along with Rusli Suryadi and Firman Soetjahja, former directors of the bank, are among the suspects listed by the commitee. The other three suspects are businessmen Joko Soegiarto, Kim Yohanes Mulia and Setyo Novanto, a deputy treasurer of Golkar.

International auditor PricewaterhouseCoopers, hired by the state audit agency, has completed auditing the scandal and indicated that many others are involved. The state audit agency, despite, criticism, refused to give Pricewaterhouse's full report to the parliamentary investigative team, saying that to do so would breach the banking secrecy rule. The International Monetary Fund has also urged the government to publish the report.

Earlier reports have implicated Habibie's inner circle, including his brother Timmi, in the scandal and claimed that the misappropriated funds were to be used to bribe Habibie's way to the next presidency. The People's Consultative Assembly is to meet next month to elect the country's new president.

The IMF, the World Bank and Asian Development Bank have said they will hold off extending new loans for the crisis-weakened country until the scandal is resolved satisfactorily. A new letter of intent was to be signed last week between the IMF and the government to determine a new loan for the country.

The scandal and the East Timor conflicts have added pressure to the already weak rupiah, which sank to as low as Rp8,450 to the US dollar Thursday from around 6,700 in June.

(Asia Pulse/Antara)

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©1999 Asia Times Online Co., Ltd.