After almost two months of investigation, the House of Representatives' Bank Century bailout inquiry committee has uncovered the messy side of the government and the central bank's decision to salvage the small bank in the wake of the impact of the global financial turmoil in late 2008. The Jakarta Post's Niken Prathivi wraps up the team's temporary findings on the case. Here are the stories:

Despite its questionable objectivity in investigating the bailout case, the committee has at least uncovered a blend of motives underlying the decision, as well as the political battle between senior government officials behind the case.

According to the committee, a combination of unnecessary panic due to the global crisis and pressure to salvage the bank's major depositors may have played a role in pushing through the decision.

"We view these two factors as the main trigger for the bailout," committee member Hendrawan Supratikno from the Indonesian Democratic Party of Struggle (PDI-P) said. "There are a lot of players behind the case, and we're still trying to identify their roles."

The committee believes there were some officials who wanted to have the bank intact in order to rescue major depositors while on the other hand, there were those who honestly wanted to keep the bank afloat to prevent a systemic risk to the banking sector amid the uncertain economic climate at the time.

While the systemic risk argument remains a matter of debate, major depositors are certainly the biggest gainers.

With the bank continuing to operate, major depositors' savings were spared as the government only guarantees savings of below Rp 2 billion (US$213,000) if a bank collapses.

The committee has shown that the politically wired Sampoerna family, several state companies and a central bank foundation accounted for more than 35 percent of funds owned by big depositors in the bank.

This excludes the bank's short-term borrowings, or interbank fund, from several small and provincial banks. Should Bank Century have folded, these banks would also have been at risk of collapse as they could not recoup their funds.

The Financial System Stability Committee (KSSK), headed by Finance Minister Sri Mulyani Indrawati with members including then Bank Indonesia governor Boediono, decided on Nov. 21, 2008, to rescue Century, now renamed Bank Mutiara.

After the decision, the Deposit Insurance Agency (LPS) took over the bank under BI supervision and guidance. However, under LPS and BI management, the bailout swelled to Rp 6.76 trillion (US$760 million), more than 10 times the Rp 632 billion originally agreed by the KSSK.

In a hearing at the committee on Wednesday, Mulyani said she refused to bear any responsibility for the bailout fund ballooning beyond the agreed figure.

She argued the LPS and BI were entirely responsible for managing and supervising the bank after the KSSK took the decision to go ahead with the bailout.

In its interim findings, the committee said it believes BI misled the Finance Ministry in exaggerating the scale of the impact to the banking sector from a Century collapse.

"It's clear that BI somehow provided misleading information to the KSSK to justify the bailout," committee member Mukhamad Misbakhun from the Justice and Prosperous Party (PKS) said.

Then BI governor Boediono, now Vice President, as well as other current and former BI officials remained tight-lipped over questions raised by committee members. Their comments were limited to a series of "I don't know", "I can't remember", "ask the expert" and "let me check".

The testimony of then vice president Jusuf Kalla hinted at BI's misleading input when he said Mulyani met him on Sept. 30, 2009, and spoke of BI's actions in the bailout decision.

"Mulyani came to me saying she felt she was being deceived by BI when the bailout swelled from the Rp 632 billion proposed by BI during the KSSK meeting," Kalla said.

Mulyani refused to comment on the issue. However, when the scandal first broke out in the middle of last year, she repeatedly placed the blame on BI's poor data and subsequent supervision of the bank.

Apart from the credibility of BI's input, the committee has also highlighted the fact that Kalla was not kept abreast of developments in the bailout decision process.

Kalla, who at the time was politically powerful due to his position as Golkar Party chairman, was kept out of the loop in the Bank Century case despite his key role supervising the economic ministers.

As President Susilo Bambang Yudhoyono was on an overseas trip between Nov. 13 and 26, Kalla was officially authorized to be acting president.

However, according to Kalla, Mulyani and Boediono never consulted him over the bailout plan, a move deemed irregular. He claimed he received the report on the bailout four days later when Mulyani and Boediono officially met him to discuss the decision.

In her testimony, Mulyani claimed she had sent a text message to Kalla immediately after making the bailout decision. Lawmakers, however, believed Kalla was left out because had he known beforehand of the bailout plan, he would have rejected it.

Just days before the bailout, Kalla has dismissed a proposal from Mulyani and Boediono to have a full blanket guarantee to cover all bank deposits, a move taken by other neighboring countries. A full guarantee is needed to ensure bank depositors don't move their funds overseas, causing a serious run on local banks.

Another mystery uncovered by the committee was the rundown informal KSSK meetings before the Nov. 21 bailout, which essentially highlighted the bank rescue plan.

In a Nov. 13 meeting, for example, the KSSK saw the need to draft options for the rescue plan despite being fully aware of Bank Century's deteriorating condition a week earlier. The meeting also showed the scale of the Century problem. Such revelations counters earlier arguments by the KSSK that they knew of the scale of the problem during the Nov. 21 meeting.

Thus far, the committee findings are far from confirming speculations over campaign funds owned by Yudhoyono's inner-circle and affiliates deposited in Bank Century. The committee has previously assumed the bailout is merely aimed at rescuing the funds.

Major Bank Century depositors a week before the bailout

1. Sampoerna family Rp 1.5 trillion
2. PT Jamsostek Rp 212 billion
3. PT Telkom Rp 165 billion
4. PT Perkebunan Nusantara Rp 10 billion
5. ASABRI Rp 5 billion
6. PT WIKA Rp 20 billion

Bank Century interbank borrowings (Total value of Rp1.1 trillion)

1. Bank Sinar Mas
2. Maybank
3. BPD Sulawesi Tenggara
4. BPD Aceh
5. BPD NTT
6. BPD NTB
7. Anglomas

Source: Report on informal KSSK meeting on Nov. 13

Unsolved mysteries in the bailout case

1. Speculation over the existence of Yudhoyono's campaign fund in Bank Century that may justify the bank's rescue. The committee has thus far been unable to clarify this issue, which is being used as the reasons for forming the committee.

2. The reasons why Yudhoyono, Mulyani and Boediono bypassed Kalla in the bailout plan.

3. A Cabinet meeting on Oct. 8, 2008, or two months before the bailout, reflects no panic over the economic situation.

4. Mulyani's confession to Kalla that she was being deceived by the central bank over the cost of the bailout.