HOUSE INQUIRY INTO BANK CENTURY CASE NECESSARY : OBSERVER

Jakarta, Nov 23 (ANTARA) - Economic observer Fadhil Hasan said the House of Representatives (DPR) should approve legislators' initiative to conduct an inquiry into the Bank Century case.

"The State Audit Board (BPK) investigative audit is not focused on auditing the flows of Bank Century funds so that the House should conduct an inquiry," he said here on Monday.

He said however that the result of the BPK audit had indicated that the decisions by Bank Indonesia (BI/the central bank) and by the Financial Sector Policy Committee (KKSK) in bailing out Bank Century were less appropriate.

The report also indicated that BI had prepared a regulation for salvaging the bank.

Although it was normative enough, the BPK audit was not able to expose Bank Century's flow of funds because it was not given access by the Financial Transaction Analysis and Report Center (PPATK) to trace them.

"Actually, the public is waiting for the exposure of the fund flows," he said.

To solve the problem, Fadhil hoped that the House would approve the initiative of a group of legislators which had proposed to use their right to inquire the alleged bank scandal.

"The House inquiry should be continued to trace the flow of the funds so that rumors will not emerge and spread more widely," he said.

Besides through the House inquiry, the government could also set up an independent team to look into it such as once formed from an independent institution, Pricewaterhouse Coopers, to trace the Bank Bali case in the past.

Bank Century was taken over by the Deposit Insurance Agency (LPS) late last year after it faced a liquidity problem. The government later provided a bailout of Rp6.7 trillion which was much criticized by the public. ***2***