Export Entrepreneurs Feeling Trapped, Analysts Hope Trillion Corruption Allegations At LPEI Followed Up

LPEI (Photo: Doc. LPEI)

JAKARTA Bad governance of the Indonesian Export Financing Agency (LPEI) in lending that harms a number of globally oriented entrepreneurs. Not only once, several entrepreneurs have complained about the same thing.

One of them is the case of PT Jeje Furniture which was hit by a false promise of ease of export credit by LPEI. Although the company based in Sukoharjo has handed over 38 assets which in 2015 were valued at IDR 615 billion.

PT Jeje Furniture in 2018 filed a lawsuit that ended in the defeat of LPEI so that it had to return the assets that had been controlled.

LPEI or Indonesian Eximbank has a legal basis for Law Number 2 of 2009 which was later changed to Law Number 4 of 2023 concerning the Development and Strengthening of the Financial Sector which facilitates export financing, supports export activities to guidance and consulting services related to exports.

Legal analyst in the fields of corruption and money laundering, Julius Hebrew, assessed that the alleged corruption case in the implementation of national export financing by LPEI processed by the Attorney General's Office (AGO) could be an entry point to investigate the problems complained by local entrepreneurs.

"I heard that there were complaints from local entrepreneurs that felt like they were being framed by LPEI which should encourage national exports that were highly competitive in the global market. The trap led to the control of guaranteed assets and then bought cheaply," said a former analyst for an anti-rasuah agency, in a press statement received by VOI, Saturday, May 27.

According to the Chairman of the Indonesian Legal Aid and Human Rights Association (PBHI), the case that occurred at LPEI in 2013-2019 was not small because the AGO estimated state losses to reach Rp2.6 trillion.

The loss is due to the mode of financing debtors without going through the principles of good corporate governance and not in accordance with LPEI's credit policy rules. Julius hopes that the handling of other entrepreneur complaints can be handled seriously to investigate allegations of corruption at LPEI.