Rendi A. Witular and Aditya Suharmoko – Questions have arisen over President Susilo Bambang Yudhoyono's and then Bank Indonesia governor Boediono's lack of foresight in the Bank Century debacle.

Critics say the decision by the government and BI to rescue the ailing Bank Century may have been based on dubious facts about the state of the country's economy and the real condition of the bank.

Participants at the Nov. 20 and 21 meeting to decide Century's bailout say the BI leadership fed the government with limited and possibly invalid facts to justify the rescue.

The 12-hour meeting of the Committee for Financial Sector Stability (KSSK), which brings together Finance Ministry and BI officials, was seemingly enough for Finance Minister Sri Mulyani Indrawati to grant Boediono's request to rescue the bank, according to a participant at the meeting, (speaking on condition of anonymity to protect their career).

"Finance Ministry officials were so furious at BI (in the meeting), because they had to decide quickly but lacked sufficient input and analysis," said the participant. "There wasn't even data or reports on the table when they debated the justification for the rescue."

Lawmaker Dradjat Wibowo said the ongoing audit by the Supreme Audit Agency (BPK) would reveal any possible attempt by BI to used invalid data to justify the rescue. "That's what I'm concerned about. The decision may have been made based on insufficient and probably invalid facts fed to the KSSK," he said.

The Century controversy erupted after the bank's bailout costs, as of July 31, soared tenfold from the original estimate of Rp 600 billion (US$60 million) proposed during the meeting.

It was not until late July that legislators got wind of the ballooning costs, after having been kept in the dark by the government and the central bank, and started to question the justification for the bailout.

BI has repeatedly argued the rescue was necessary to prevent a systemic threat to the banking sector, saying that 23 banks of the same size as Century would have been dragged down had Century been allowed to fold. "There was no mention of the 23 banks during the meeting; that number just came out recently," said another participant.

Minister Mulyani has repeatedly said the decision to rescue the bank was based entirely on BI arguments and calculations.

During the meeting, vice president-elect Boediono merely passed along the arguments and facts delivered by his officials for Mulyani's team to ponder, with no attempt whatsoever to question their validity, the participant said. "I guess this was because Boediono was just four months away at the time from taking the top job at BI."

BI's deputy governor for banking supervision, Siti Fadjrijah, the key figure in drawing up the bailout justification, is currently recuperating from a stroke that put her in a coma four months ago.

However, despite the questionable validity of the central bank's data and analysis, Mulyani and Boediono decided to go through with the bailout, in a private meeting at around 4 a.m. on Nov. 21, witnessed only by KSSK secretary Raden Pardede and a noted lawyer.

"There was no political discussion during that meeting. The decision was based entirely on the risk Century may have posed to the economy in general," said the participant. The meeting did not touch on the scale of the fraud crippling Century, nor the potential for a costly bailout.

With all the allegation of dubious grounds for rescue, Yudhoyono's rivals have suggested there was a plot to salvage the bank out of concern from big depositors close to the President. As reported Friday, a Cabinet member said the debacle could be traced back to Nov. 13, 2008, when Mulyani told Yudhoyono of the bank's troubles, on the sidelines of a G20 meeting in Washington, DC.

While little is known about the meeting, the Cabinet member said it was possible a deal had already been struck to salvage Century. Yudhoyono has refused to comment directly on the issue.