Bandarlampung
Civil servants and entrepreneurs in Lampung are becoming increasingly anxious after a local bank, said to be affected by the global financial crisis, apparently collapsed following a liquidity shortage.
The East Lampung regency administration decided to deposit its fund of Rp 108 billion (US$9.11 million) at Tripanca Bank, a rural credit bank (BPR), for payroll and overhead costs.
The bank, owned by Lampung businessmen Sugiarto Wiharjo, is allegedly on the brink of collapse after customers rushed to withdraw their savings and deposit funds recently, leaving the bank with around Rp 60 million in its coffers.
In the panic, customers withdrew nearly Rp 30 billion worth of savings and around Rp 55 billion of deposits.
"We do not have the slightest idea why the East Lampung administration maintained its fund in the Tripanca Bank," Sutikno, head of Commission B at East Lampung regency legislative council, said Thursday.
"We urge the administration to find a solution soon so that it can provide alternative funds to pay employees and the remaining development projects that have been scheduled."
Under a 2006 Home Affairs Ministerial Decree, all regional administrations across the country had to open public accounts in banks deemed stable and solid.
In June, Bank Indonesia declared Tripanca Bank in Lampung a reliable bank.
Civil servants are concerned because Sugiarto has reportedly fled to Singapore or Australia.
Tripanca's collapse prompted other banks, with business links to Sugiarto, to save their assets and retrieve funds.
Private banks Mega and Deutsche Bank confiscated Tripanca's warehouse storage facilities containing coffee, cloves, pepper and cacao on Nov. 11.
The confiscation caused havoc among exporters who store their product, packaged and ready for sale, in the warehouses.
Tripanca Group had dominated Lampung's Robusta coffee export by 70 percent with 40,000 tons in 2005 and 150,000 tons in 2007.
"We usually store our coffee in the Tripanca warehouse before being exported. I have around 140 tons of coffee in the seized warehouse," said coffee exporter Juanto Muhajirin.
"I am finding it difficult to retrieve my coffee because I have not yet been able to conduct any transactions with Sugiarto."
Customers, mostly commodities exporters, have demanded the bank's board of directors give an explanation as to how they plan on paying for their lost investments.
Exporters and farmers have invested export proceeds at Tripanca valued between Rp 100 million and Rp 1 billion.
Sugiarto's lawyer, Albert Tiensa, said currently Sugiarto was in Singapore seeking medical treatment.
Head of the Lampung office of Bank Indonesia, Mokhammad Dakhlan, said based on banking indicators Tripanca Bank was still healthy, with a capital adequacy ratio (CAR) of more than 8 percent, and was still profitable in September.
The Jakarta Post, Friday, Nov 2008
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