Former Central Bank Official Grilled Over Century Case

Jakarta, Oct 4 (Antara) - The Corruption Eradication Commission (KPK) on Friday questioned former Senior Deputy Governor of Bank Indonesia (BI) Miranda Gultom as a witness in the controversial bailout of Bank Century (now Bank Mutiara). "I have come to KPK as a witness in the Century case," said Miranda, upon her arrival at the KPK building here. Miranda came to the KPK building from the Pondok Bambu prison in East Jakarta, where she is serving her three-year sentence for bribing a number of lawmakers to pave the way for her election as BI senior deputy governor from 1999 to 2004. KPK has so far questioned 57 witnesses in the Bank Century case. Most witnesses had attended the November 24, 2008, meeting organized by the now defunct Financial System Stability Committee (KSSK), which was authorized to assess the bailout plan. They include former KSSK chief and former Finance Minister Sri Mulyani, who is now the World Bank`s managing director, former Commissioner of Insurance Deposit Institute (LPS) and former KSSK member Darmin Nasution, Director General of Taxes Fuad Rahmany, who is also the former chief of the Capital Market and Financial Institutions Supervisory Board (Bappepam/LK), and Bank Indonesia Deputy Governor Muliaman Hadad. However, the witnesses refused to comment on the results of the meeting and pledged to disclose them at a court session. In the bailout case, KPK has only named former BI deputy governor for foreign exchange affairs Budi Mulya as a suspect for abusing his authority by giving Bank Century short-term liquidity support (FPJP) in 2008. Budi is believed to be involved in the creation of the FPJP for Bank Century and in declaring that a failure by Bank Century could have had a systemic impact on the nation`s banking system. Bank Century received a bailout fund of Rp6.7 trillion in 2008 although it did not qualify as it had a capital adequacy ratio of 2.02 percent, well below the minimum requirement of 8 percent to receive short-term liquidity support. The bailout funds were disbursed in stages - Rp2.7 trillion on November 23, 2008, Rp2.2 trillion on December 5, 2008, Rp1.1 trillion on February 3, 2009, and Rp630 billion on July 24, 2009.