Rizal Ramli: Agreement on OPIC got approval from Megawati
Tuesday, August 14 2001 - 01:59 AM WIB
"That signing had been approved by vice president at that time. Now the vice president has become the President," Rizal told reporters when handing over his duties to new Finance Minister Boediono.
The signing of the agreement has drawn public outcry as Rizal signed the agreement when he was only caretaker finance minister on July 31, after the appointment of Megawati as president by the People's Consultative Assembly.
When asked, Boediono said that he would first study the agreement before he could make any comment on it. "This is a concrete problem. I have to look into its terms of conditions. I think I could not yet give any comment on this."
Earlier, the president of state electricity company PT PLN, Eddie Widiono, questioned the content of the agreement signed by Rizal whether it was in line with the commitment made by previous finance minister Prijadi Praptosoehardjo.
Rizal Ramli and U.S. Ambassador to Indonesia Robert Gelbard reportedly signed a document on the payment of the claim on July 31.
Actually, the payment itself had been approved by the so-called Kepress 133 Team on electricity restructuring, which was chaired by then coordinating minister of the economy Rizal Ramli. At that time, then finance minister Prijadi Parptosuhardjo refused to pay simply because the government had no money.
The government obligation to OPIC and foreign bank creditors emerged after the government delayed the development of the Dieng and Patuha geothermal power plants following the country's 1997 financial crisis. U.S.-based Cal Energy was the contractor of the project.
OPIC, which covered the risk of Cal Energy's investment in Indonesia, then demanded the government of Indonesia to pay compensation for the delay. An international arbitration panel ordered Indonesia to pay OPIC some $260 million, and another $140 million to a group of Cal Energy's bank creditors.(*)