TEMPO.CO, Jakarta - The Corruption Eradication Commission (KPK) will today question two witnesses named Dira Kurniawan Mochtar and Stepahanus Eka Dasawarsa Sutantio over alleged graft in Bank Indonesia Liquidity Assistance (BLBI).
“Both will be questioned for witness SAT [Syafruddin Tumenggung],” the KPK spokesman Febri Diansyah said today.
Dira is the former director of commercial lender Bank Internasional Indonesia (BII). Earlier in 2007, the KPK had requested the immigration office to impose a travel ban on Dira over alleged graft in asset sales of Tangerang Steel, a company belonging to debtor Lili Sumantri.
In the BLBI case, the KPK has named Syafruddin as a suspect. The corruption took place when Syafruddin held the title of the National Bank Restructuring Agency (BPPN) chairman in 2002. He allegedly issued a release and discharge letter (SKL) to commercial lender Bank Dagang Nasional Indonesia (BDNI) despite the fact that the results of bank restructuring showed that only Rp1.1 trillion was collected from Sjamsul Nursalim, the controlling shareholder of BDNI. This caused Rp3.7 trillion in state losses following the underpayment.
Rizal Ramli, former coordinating minister for economic affairs, finance and industry during the Abdurrahman Wahid administration, said that release and discharge letters were issued to more than one debtors even though debts had not been paid off.
“It’s odd, why did a debtor, and there was more than one, several debtors who had not paid off [their debts], receive the release and discharge letters. It should be investigated,” Rizal said after being questioned by the KPK yesterday.
According to Rizal, the release and discharge letters over BLBI were issued in 2004 when he no longer held his position. Earlier, Bank Indonesia had distributed BLBI funds amounting to Rp147.7 trillion to 48 banks.
MAYA AYU PUSPITASARI