The Central Bank’s Expensive Facelift

Tuesday, September 4, 2007

SUSPICIONS of bribery by Bank Indonesia of a number of members of the House of Representatives (DPR) have been heard for some time. In 2003, an outlay of the bank’s Rp31.5 billion was discovered to have ended up in the DPR, in order to safeguard the bank’s interests. An audit by the Supreme Audit Agency (BPK) uncovered the method and the cover-up.

A Tempo source explained how BI’s money to the DPR was part of a project to improve the bank’s image. The reputation of the central bank had been tarnished after a number of its top officials went on trial for corruption charges linked to the Bank Indonesia Liquidity Assistance (BLBI) program.

The project to improve the bank’s image involved legal experts, DPR members and the media. BI fully defended their officials charged with corruption, spending a total of Rp100 billion on the project. How was it all carried out? The following is the result of Tempo’s investigation.

. tempo : 173510310085.

NO comment, no comment!

This was the response of most of Bank Indonesia’s top officials when confronted by the media. It seemed they had agreed to keep silent whenever they were asked about the suspected bribes which the bank paid out to a number of DPR members, even though, for the previous two weeks, news of this had been in all the papers.

The letter which Tempo sent to a number of senior BI officials was forwarded to their public relatio

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