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Former Bank Indonesia governor Burhanuddin Abdullah attended a consultative meeting with the House of Representatives’ special committee for Bank Century on Monday.

The purpose of the meeting was to gather information about the merger process between the three banks — namely Bank Pikko, Bank CIC and Bank Danpac — that came together to form Bank Century and the central’s banks short-term loan policy (FPJP).

Burhanuddin was one of four people from the central bank scheduled to attend the meeting. The others were bank senior deputy governor Miranda Goeltom, former senior deputy governor Anwar Nasution and former audit director Anton Parihoran.

Former senior deputy governor Aulia Pohan was also summoned but he was unable to attend the meeting because of administrative matters. Pohan is serving a 4.5-year sentence at the Brimob Headquarters in Kelapa Dua, Depok, West Java for a corruption conviction.

The committee suspected that Bank Indonesia was lenient during the merging process. Burhanuddin denied this and said he did not even know the owners of the three banks that were merged to form Bank Century.

“We have to remember that the three banks were minor banks so it was not important to know who the owners were. Besides, there are hundreds of small banks in Indonesia,” Burhanuddin said.

Eva Kusuma Sundari, a lawmaker with the Indonesian Democratic Party for Struggle (PDI-P), said she did not believe that the central bank had not given any leniency or special treatment in the merger between the banks.

But Burhanuddin said he could not possibly tell any lies because took an oath before the meeting.

“I had my oath taken before God. You can count on me,” he said.

The meeting was still ongoing. The committee will question Miranda Goeltom, Anwar Nasution and Sabar Anton Parihoran after they finish the session with Burhanuddin.

JG