Different Fate Of State Receivables: BLBI Is The Target Of Shooting, Lapindo Owned By The Bakrie Conglomerate Family Is Still Standing

Illustration (Photo: Doc. Antara)

JAKARTA - The government through the State Receivables Affairs Committee (PUPN) is said to continue to pursue the state's rights to several receivables that are still controlled by debtors. One that is now being intensively carried out is the collection of Bank Indonesia Liquidity Assistance (BLBI) funds which have been in existence for more than 20 years.

Head of the Sub-Directorate of State Receivables II, Ministry of Finance, Sumarsono, said that most of the BLBI files had been included in the PUPN for later collection.

“There are currently 50,697 files of active State Receivable Cases (BKPN) with an outstanding value of IDR 76.89 trillion. Most of the BLBI case files have been entered here,” he said in a virtual press conference, Friday, November 12.

Most recently, the BLBI Task Force has just confiscated assets belonging to Hutomo Mandala Putra alias Tommy Suharto in four different locations in Karawang, West Java. The youngest of former President Suharto was included in the vortex of the central bank's bailout because it was recorded that he had an obligation to return funds of IDR 2.61 trillion.

One of the other obligors who is currently being hunted by the task force is former high-ranking PT Bank Asia Pacific (Aspac) Setiawan Harjono, who is declared to have debts of more than IDR 3.57 trillion.

The businessman and besan of the former chairman of the House of Representatives, Setya Novanto, is even said to have prepared legal steps to sue the government back for the case he was accused of. Meanwhile, the total value of state losses in the BLBI case is claimed to reach a total of IDR 110 trillion.

The government's firm stance in targeting BLBI evaders to immediately return the state's rights seems to be in contrast to the debt problem of PT Lapindo Minarak Jaya.

Sumarsono himself admitted that he had not received Lapindo's file at PUPN for later collection efforts to the person concerned.

"Well, for the debt from Lapindo, based on our focus data (the file) has not been submitted to PUPN. So, the bad debt (file) is in the handover or in the ministry/institution (K/L) that handles it. In this case, the Ministry of Finance is also considered as a K/L. Now, Lapindo's position is still at the Ministry of Finance and has not been submitted to PUPN", he explained.

In the VOI records, the Supreme Audit Agency (BPK) audit stated that PT Lapindo Minarak Jaya, which is affiliated with the conglomerate Aburizal Bakrie, has a debt to the state of IDR 1.91 trillion. This amount is the accumulation of government bailout funds for victims of the Lapindo mudflow in Sidoarjo, East Java several years ago.

"These files have various characteristics, various forms, and various debtors", said Sumarsono.