SRI MULYANI NEVER HAD ACCOUNT AT CENTURY : FINANCE MINISTRY

Jakarta, Jan 18 (ANTARA) - The Finance Ministry here Mondday issued a statement refuting rumors that Finance Minister Sri Mulyani used to have an account at Century Bank.

The name Sri Mulyani which was mentioned in the Financial Transactions Analysis and Reporting Center (PPATK) as one of the account holders at Bank Century was not the finance minister, the statement said.

The finance minister in her capacity as as former chairwomen of the Financial System Stability Committee (KSSK) was on Wednesday (Jan 13) questioned by the House Bank Century Inquiry Committee about her involvement in the bailout of the troubled bank.

A member of the inquiry committee, Bambang Soesatyo, said Sri Mulyani was questioned about the government policy to give Short Term Funding Facility (FPJP) to Bank Century as well as the existence of a Coordination Committee (KK) and KKSK which had made the decision to give the bank a bailout of Rp6.7 trillion.

Another member of the house committee, Romahurmuziy, added the team also questioned Sri Mulyani over an inconsistency in the systemic parameters used by the KKSK to decide to bail ouy Bank Century.

Romahurmuziy siad that out of five generally accepted parameters to categorize a bank as having a systemic impact, only one existed in the Bank Century case.

With such weak indicator, he said, the House would question Sri Mulyani as the former chief of KSSK about the reason to consider Bank Century as a financial institution whose collapse would have a systemic impact on the national economy.

Meanwhile, Sri Mulyani argued the bailout was one of the steps to prevent and handle the impact of the global crisis.

"Because the impact of the crisis was prevented, economists` predictions of mass unemployment and lay-offs did not happen. The country`s economic performance remained good with the rupiah`s exchange rate continuing on a stable course and investment going up," she said.