DEMOCRAT PARTY AGREES STATE OFFICIALS INVOLVED IN CENTURY CASE PROSECUTED

Jakarta, Dec 18 (ANTARA) - The ruling Democrat Party (PD) faction in the House of Representatives (DPR) has agreed that the Bank Century case must be solved, and any state official who had done wrong in it, legally processed.

Gondo Radityo Gambiro, a PD faction member, made the statement to newsmen here on Friday in response to a proposal from several members of the House Bank Century Inquiry Committee to suspend all state officials involved in the case.

"The Democrat Party faction is not afraid and will not protect anyone. If he or she is found guilty, he or she must be legally processed," he said.

He noted that at a recent consultative meeting with the committee, Supreme Audit Board (BPK) officials had said that the formation of a "Coordination Committee" (KK) by certain state finance officials was against the law because it had no legal basis.

The KK was the pioneer of the Financial System Stability Committee (KSSK) which declared the Bank Century a failed bank to cause a systemic effect and needed to be bailed out.

Radityo said the committee had to ask for clarifications from the officials concerned with regard to the BPK statement that the KK's formation was against the law and verification on it had to be done by experts whose names had already been put on the committee's list.

"If clarifications have been made and verified and it was found that the BPK statement was true, those involved must be legally processed," he said.

He said right now the committee had not yet asked for clarifications and verified the BPK statement and data from the Center of Financial Transaction Analysis and Reporting (PPATK) and therefore its information was still one-sided.

Therefore, he said, the Democrat Party faction had expressed objections to the proposal for the temporary suspension of officials to be summoned for questioning by the committee.

"The proposal is premature because the committee has just held two meetings, namely with the BPK and the PPATK," he said.

Radityo said the Democrat Party's proposal was for the officials concerned to come to the president to ask to be temporarily suspended , if they felt disturbed by the suspicions against them.

He reminded the committee to be careful and objective in making decisions. He said decisions that were made hastily and later found to be false could reduce public confidence in the House of Representatives (DPR).***1***