AGO and Vista Bella Making Peace
Monday, 25 February, 2008 | 15:08 WIB

TEMPO Interactive, Jakarta: The Attorney General's Office (AGO) has acknowledged efforts to make peace with PT Vista Bella Pratama in the asset sales case of PT Timor Putra Nasional.

According to Untung Udji Santoso, Deputy Attorney General for Civil and State Administration, the aim of the efforts is to recover the state's assets.

“Saving the state's money what we’re aiming at,” he told reporters on Friday (23/2).

However, Untung did not want to provide details of the dialog with Vista Bella, which took place on Friday night two weeks earlier (8/2).

The government, represented by the AGO, he said, has already received an offer from Vista Bella.

According to Untung, the bargaining position is still “being discussed” by the government.

Taufik Suryadharma, PT Vista Bella Pratama's Managing Director, who was contacted via telephone, acknowledged that so far the AGO had not offered him anything.

During the meeting which was initiated by the AGO, said Taufik, “I was only asked to talk about the chronology.”
On a formal level, he went on to say, both the AGO and the Finance Department have invited him to communicate about the case.

Taufik said he had not even received a summons charge, and according to him, Vista Bella has not yet understood about what claim the AGO is referring to.

The case began in late November last year when the Corruption Eradication Commission (KPK) found strong indication that there were irregularities in Timor's asset purchase by Vista Bella.

The KPK found evidence of a flow of funds from Humpuss, a business group owned by Hutomo Mandala Putra, to Vista Bella.

The KPK asked the finance minister to cancel the sale of Timors asset from the Indonesian Banking Restructuring Agency (IBRA) to Vista Bella.

The assets were IBRA's receivables to Timor amounting to Rp4.576 trillion that were auctioned off by IBRA in June 2003, and won by Vista Bella at a price of Rp512 billion.

Finance Minister Sri Mulyani handed over a power of attorney to the AGO as the state's lawyer to make a civil claim and annul the transaction between IBRA and Vista Bella.

Yoseph Suardi Sabda, a member of the AGO' team who was also at the meeting with Vista Bella, stated that peace could be made if Vista Bella is willing to meet AGO's requirements.

“Paving the way to peace is not forbidden,” he stressed.
However, Yoseph did not want to state what the requirements were.

SANDY INDRA PRATAMA