VIVAnews - Bank Century's takeover by the government is being questioned by the Indonesia Corruption Watch (ICW).
The anti-corruption watchdog sent an open letter to Governor of Bank Indonesia (BI), Boediono. According to ICW Deputy Coordinator, Danang Widoyoko, the takeover has similar patterns to the Bank Indonesia Liquidity Aid (BLBI) corruption case.
The BLBI case refers to emergency liquidity credits extended by BI, the central bank, to commercial banks during the financial crisis that began in mid 1997. The credits were extended under the government's blanket guarantee program. Of the Rp 144.5 trillion (approx. US$11.8 billion) of BLBI loans issued since 1997, Rp 51.7 trillion (approx. US$4.2 billion) have become non-performing. The BLBI corruption case is still ongoing and is being handled by the Attorney General's Office.
"The ownership, including liabilities, are taken over by the government. In fact, the assets may be of no value," Danang told VIVAnews, today, Nov 26.
According to Danang, based on Bank Century's financial reports, 29.7 percent of the bank's assets were invested in the form of non-tradable obligations. "Has the government considered that the assets taking the form of obligations are junk bonds?" said Danang.
Another similarity to the BLBI scandal, he said, is the fact that Robert Tantular, one of the Century's controlling shareholders, has fled the country. The Interpol has been asked for assistance. "Learning from the BLBI case, this triggers delay in solving the case," he said.
As previously reported, Robert Tantular is one of the three controlling shareholders of Bank Century. The other two foreign nationals: Rafat Ali Erizfi, a Pakistan-descendant entrepreneur, and Hesham al Warraq of Saudi Arabia. They owned Century through several business groups such as First Gulf Asia Holdings Ltd. They are the ones who had been dealing with Bank Indonesia with regard to the problems that faced Bank Century.
The consequence is, said Danang, that the Indonesian nation would bear losses over Bank Century's takeover. In fact, he said, there are not many Indonesians who were Bank Century's customers. "Therefore, even if Bank Century collapses, there won't be many customers that suffer losses," he said.
Danang said that the government should cancel the takeover. "We'll see how Bank Indonesia's Governor responds over this," he said.
VIVAnews writers Elin Yunita Kristanti, Ita Lismawati F. Malau, Fadila Fikriani Armadita, Bonardo Maulana Wahono and Ramona Sofianne Dewi, contributed to this article.
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