Accountability

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Indrawati under investigation over Indonesian banking scandal

26 June 2013

In early May, World Bank managing director Sri Mulyani Indrawati answered questions from the Indonesian Corruption Eradication Commission in relation to a 6.7 trillion rupiah ($675 million) 2008 bailout of Bank Century, a private Indonesian bank formed in 2004 from the merger of three smaller banks. The investigations have been running since November 2010 and the corruption commission has been criticised by Indonesian legislators for the slow progress of the case. Indrawati, a former finance minister of Indonesia, and officials of the Bank of Indonesia are under investigation because of allegations that the rescue, accomplished using assets of the Indonesian Deposit Insurance Corporation, was conducted without legal authority or demonstration that a capital injection was needed to prevent a run on other banks. Legislators in the Indonesian parliament have decreed that the bailout was unwarranted and there were irregularities in the process. Allegations have surfaced that some of the bailout money was siphoned off by well-connected depositors.