Febriamy Hutapea – The Bank Century bailout scandal is likely to end up costing Indonesia at least an additional Rp 5 billion ($530,000).
That was the amount proposed on Thursday to finance the operational costs of the House of Representatives' special committee established to investigate the allegedly illegal Rp 6.7 trillion bailout.
"It's the standard minimum amount for a House special committee budget in anticipation of a four-month working period," committee deputy chairman Mahfudz Siddiq said.
Mahfudz, of the Prosperous Justice Party (PKS), said the money would be spent covering meeting expenses – including members' personal meeting allowances – and paying for experts and witnesses summoned to give their opinions, as well as a "field survey" to probe whether any misappropriated state funds could be recovered.
It was not immediately clear why the committee would need to commission such a survey, given its extensive powers to instruct any government agency to investigate on its behalf.
Committee deputy chairman Yahya Sacawirya, from President Susilo Bambang Yudhoyono's Democratic Party, said the committee would probably hire 10 expert staffers who would each be paid Rp 7.5 million per month.
Mahfudz, speaking after a committee leadership meeting in the House, defended the size of the allocation, saying any money left over would be returned.
"It is better proposing an excessive budget rather than suffering from a budget deficit," he argued, adding it would be more difficult to make additional requests for funds.
He said the allocation would be voted on by the entire 30-member special committee before it was officially approved.
Sebastian Salang, chairman of the Concerned Citizens for the Indonesian Parliament (Formappi), criticized the allocation as excessive, particularly given the probe would only last for about four months.
"They need to show a sense of crisis. It's too much" Sebastian said. "They should be [trying] to save on the state budget."
He said many such special committees in the past had produced "less-than-optimal results," and it would be better if the House calculated its budget according to what it actually needed. "They'd better be serious with such a huge budget and come up with some concrete results or the people's distrust of the House will grow," Sebastian said.
Meanwhile, the committee's leadership meeting also agreed to verify major data from the Supreme Audit Agency (BPK) by summoning its former chief, Anwar Nasution, and the current chief, Hadi Purnomo, after conducting a plenary meeting on Monday.
"So, starting on Dec. 15 [Tuesday], we can summon them to confirm and add some depth to the final audit," Mahfudz said.
After verifying the BPK's data, Mahfudz said the committee's investigation would move to the decision-making process behind Century's bailout.
At that time, Finance Minister Sri Mulyani Indrawati was the chair of the Financial System Stability Committee (KSSK) that authorized the Deposit Insurance Agency (LPS) to inject funds into Century.
"When the investigation's focus is on the decision-making process, all those who attended the meeting will be summoned," Mahfudz said.
According to the recorded minutes of the November 2008 meeting, then-central bank governor and current Vice President Boediono pushed for the bailout, despite opposition from the Capital Market and Financial Institutions Supervisory Agency (Bapepam-LK) and the Finance Ministry.