NEWS CAST

NATION

Denny Shifts Blame to Former Boss Amir

After being declared a suspect in a graft case involving the Law and Human Rights Ministry’s online passport payment system, former deputy law and human rights minister Denny Indrayana appeared to try to shift the blame to former minister Amir Syamsuddin.

Denny, who has been considered an antigraft activist, stands accused of abusing his power by directly appointing two online service providers, PT Nusa SatuIntiArtha and PT Finnet Indonesia, to run the payment system, also known as payment gateway.

Denny’s lawyer, DefrizalDjamaris, said on Saturday that Amir had been well aware of the project.

“This payment gateway project exists because of a minister regulation, so there’s no way that Amir doesn’t know about it,” he said.

The regulation in question is Ministerial Decree No. 18/2014 on passports issued by Amir, who is a Democratic Party politician.

Amir has admitted that he issued the decree. However, he revoked the decree after the Finance Ministry deemed the project to be in violation of the law.

“[The payment gateway] was set up because there were many public complaints about the slow service when applying for passports, but after a while we found that it wasn’t compatible,” he said after being questioned as a witness by the police early this month.

Meanwhile, Defrizal said his client had only acted as a supervisor in the project.

“He was not the head of the team; someone else acted as the head. Pak Denny only supervised,” he said.

Defrizal added that the team tasked to carry out the project always reported any developments in the project to Amir.

The online passport payment service was launched on July 14 last year when Denny served as deputy minister. It was suddenly halted in October after it was discovered that the ministry had yet to authorize the start of the project.

Defrizal said it was strange for the project to be stopped abruptly when the Finance Ministry had already given the green light to the Law and Human Rights Ministry for budget approval.

“The Finance Ministry responded by giving space [for the project to be carried out]. It never explicitly said this [project] violated the ministry’s regulation,” he said.

Several civil organizations have criticized the police for their move against Denny, calling it an effort to silence critics of the police, since Denny’s case emerged only after Denny publicly supported the Corruption Eradication Commission (KPK) in its standoff with the police in January.

The police have denied the allegation and said there was enough evidence to charge Denny, pointing out that Denny had authorized the two companies to open a single bank account where funds from the payment gateway were to be deposited before being transferred to the state treasury.

The project cost Rp 32 billion (US$2.4 million), which the police consider state losses. Amir said the money was the total income of the project and that it had been returned to the state in full.

“The money was in that single bank account for only one day,” he said.

Reports have been circulating that Vice President Jusuf Kalla orchestrated the prosecution of Denny

SPORT

Westbrook Scores 33 as Thunder Hold Off Suns in NBA

Russell Westbrook had 33 points, nine rebounds and seven assists as the Oklahoma City Thunder rallied from 20 points down to beat the Phoenix Suns 109-97 on Sunday and strengthen their hold on the final playoff spot in the NBA's Western Conference.

D.J. Augustin scored 13 of his 19 points in the fourth quarter for the Thunder, who ended a four-game road skid. Steven Adams had 13 points and 16 rebounds, and Dion Waiters scored 18 points.

Oklahoma City pulled away with a dominant final period and stayed 2 1/2 games ahead of New Orleans for the eighth and final playoff spot in the West.

Markieff Morris scored 24 points for the Suns, who dropped four games behind Oklahoma City.

In other games, Brooklyn topped the Los Angeles Lakers 107-99 to move a half-game ahead of Boston and Indiana for the final playoff spot in the Eastern Conference, Houston defeated Washington 99-91 to move past Memphis into the second spot in the West, and the Los Angeles Clippers beat Boston 119-106 for their seventh consecutive win.

In New York, Brook Lopez had 30 points and 11 rebounds to help the Nets get their third straight victory.

Joe Johnson added 18 points, eight rebounds and seven assists for the Nets, who won for the fifth time in six games to give themselves a chance at a third straight postseason berth after an underwhelming first half of the season.

Houston's James Harden had 24 points and Corey Brewer scored 15 as the Rockets won their fourth in a row. Rockets center Dwight Howard had 11 points and 10 rebounds in 19 minutes in his third game back from a right knee injury.

The Wizards are fifth in the Eastern Conference and could have guaranteed themselves a place in the postseason with a victory.

The Clippers were led by J.J. Redick, who scored 27 points, and Chris Paul, who had 21 points and 10 assists. The Clippers jumped out to a 68-47 halftime lead and pushed the advantage to 35 points midway through the third quarter.

Memphis, meanwhile, lost its third straight game, falling to San Antonio 103-89.

Kawhi Leonard had 25 points and 10 rebounds as the Spurs won for the 13th time in 16 games to remain sixth in the Western Conference.

Zach Randolph had 20 points and 13 rebounds for the Grizzlies.

LeBron James scored 20 points and Kyrie Irving added 17 as Cleveland hung on to beat lowly Philadelphia 87-86.

The Cavaliers earned their 16th straight home win despite being held scoreless in the final 4:04.

In New Orleans, Anthony Davis had 28 points and nine rebounds to power the Pelicans to a 110-88 victory over Minnesota.

C.J. Miles made a key 3-pointer with a minute left and finished with 28 points as Indiana beat Dallas 104-99, and Dwyane Wade scored 40 points a day after having fluid removed from his balky left knee as Miami topped Detroit 109-102. (***)

BUSINESS

BCA Evaluates Smaller Banks, May Acquire One

Private lender Bank Central Asia (BCA), the country’s third largest bank, is assessing several smaller banks and considering the possibility of acquiring one to help boost the group’s business.

This move differs from the strategies of other large banks that are most interested in expanding business in neighboring countries. But BCA president director JahjaSetiaatmadja said the lender had decided to focus on the local market through organic and non-organic growth.

“We are interested in small banks, but we don’t have a target yet,” Jahja said after the launching of branchless banking program at the Financial Services Authority (OJK) headquarters.

BCA revealed its acquisition program in its 2015 business plan (RBB) submitted to the OJK. However, the lender has not followed it up with the financial regulator, Jahja added.

According to Jahja, BCA was currently conducting a thorough study on small banks, focusing on financial performance and future prospects. However, BCA has not opened discussions with any of the small banks.

So far, the most pressing issue is the acquisition price, which will potentially be too expensive. This will put BCA in a difficult situation, he said.

“Any non-organic decision may give either good or bad results, which can create a problem for the parent company in the future due to differences in business cultures between the parent company and the new subsidiary,” Jahja said.

Jahja did not offer details on which small banks BCA was considering, even though he expected the prospective ones would be those that did business in a way similar to BAC, such as having a significant portfolio of trade loans.

Based on an OJK regulation, Indonesian small lenders are formally categorized as BUKU I and BUKU II banks, while mid-size and large ones like BCA as BUKU III and BUKU IV.

BUKU I banks are those with core capital of under Rp 1 trillion (US$76.4 million), while BUKU II banks have between Rp 1 and 5 trillion and BUKU III banks have between Rp 5 and 30 trillion. BUKU IV lenders, on the other hand, have core capital exceeding Rp 30 trillion.

As the country’s largest private bank, BCA has followed the booming trend of the country’s financial conglomerations in recent years, which was marked by business expansion in various financial sectors to attract more customers.

According to the OJK, Indonesia currently has 31 financial conglomerates — 16 of which control around 60 percent of total domestic financial assets.

As of now, BCA Group has six subsidiaries: automotive financing firm BCA Finance, Hong Kong-based remittance office BCA Finance Limited, sharia lender Bank BCA Syariah, securities company BCA Sekuritas as well as general and life insurers BCA Insurance (formerly Central Sejahtera Insurance) and BCA Life.

Jahja said BCA had allocated a total of Rp 1.5 trillion in investments to its capital expenditure, even though most of the money would be injected for existing subsidiaries. Recently, Jahja said the bank’s six subsidiaries would need Rp 1 to 1.1 trillion in additional capital.

“We have aRp 1.5 trillion budget, which includes capital injection for subsidiaries. So, I think we have a sufficient amount of money if we want to acquire small banks. We don’t have to spend so much,” Jahja added.

With the capital injection this year, Jahja said BCA was expecting more contributions from its subsidiaries. As of last year, BCA’s net profit grew 15.7 percent year-on-year to Rp 16.49 trillion, with around 8 to 9 percent coming from subsidiaries.

WORLD

Spain: 3 Generations, All Named Emma, Die in France Crash

From a lush suburban valley near bustling Barcelona, three generations of a well-heeled family set off last week for a fun trip to Manchester, England: 12-year-old Emma Solera Pardo, her mother Emma Pardo Vidal, and grandmother Emma Vidal Bardan.

They were on their way to pick up the youngest Emma's teen brother as he finished a semester abroad to hone his English, do some sightseeing and then head home together.

But the Germanwings flight 9525 taking them to Duesseldorf for a connecting flight to Britain slammed into the French Alps. Prosecutors say co-pilot Andreas Lubitz locked the pilot out of the cockpit and aimed the aircraft down in an eight-minute descent until it hit the ground and disintegrated.

Juan Pardo Yanez — little Emma's grandfather, the father of her mother and the former husband of the eldest Emma — was virtually speechless after returning from a trip for relatives of the 150 crash victims to the accident zone in Seyne-Les-Alpes, France, where investigators working in a ravine were collecting small pieces of the plane and body parts ahead of a painstaking identification effort.

"There is nothing that can be done or could be said to me to change the loss of these three so dearly loved ones," Pardo Yanez told The Associated Press and other journalists outside a Barcelona crisis center set up for victims' relatives.

About 400 friends and relatives of the daughter, mother and grandmother gathered for a private Mass at a monastery in SantCugat del Valles, choking up as they went inside to commemorate those lost from the family that moved to the community of about 85,000 about a decade ago.

The youngest Emma's father, Juan Ignacio Solera, is the founder and chief executive of iVOOX, a company that makes a popular software application for podcast downloads.

Emma went to a Catholic school just a five-minute walk away from the family's apartment in a cluster of buildings ringed by high brick walls. Her death hit classmates incredibly hard, said principal Maria Reina Montoro, who could only come up with one word to describe how they felt: "Destroyed."

While somewhat quiet and timid, the youngest Emma was a dedicated tennis player who regularly practiced at a club, said Manu Navas, director of the club's tennis academy. Emma's mother also played paddle tennis there.

"She wasn't a player who stood out, but what I would highlight about her was her attitude. She never took no for an answer," Navas said of the girl.

Pardo Yanez didn't say how he would try to help rebuild his life and family now that his ex-wife is gone along with one of his daughters and a granddaughter.

But he was sure of one thing: "I will return with all my children to the site where all of them have died."

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ARCHIPELAGO

Govt to Revive Nias Tourism After Earthquakes 10 Years Ago

The central government has made a pledge to revive the tourist industry in Nias Islands, North Sumatra, which has been declining since the earthquakes that hit the region 10 years ago, a minister said.

Tourism Minister ArifYahya said Nias had competitive advantages in natural, marine and cultural tourism. However, tourists seldom visited because of limited access.

Providing an example, Arif said the airport in Nias was not yet able to accommodate big planes, saying that the runway currently was only 1,600 meters.

“The runway has to be lengthened to 2,500 m at the least so that it will be able to accommodate bigger planes from a number of countries,” Arif said in Nias on Saturday.

Arif was on the island for the groundbreaking ceremony for the construction of the Nias Earthquake Monument and the commemoration of the 10th anniversary
of the earthquake at the reclamation site on Jl. SusurPantai, GunungSitoli.

The quake, which struck the island on March 28, claimed the lives of 685 people in Nias regency and 165 in South Nias regency.

About 28,000 houses were destroyed by the 8.7-magnitude quake in Nias and another 17,326 houses in South Nias.

The most damaged tourist spots were Sorake and Lagundri beaches, famous surf spots, particularly popular with Australia surfers, as the waves at Sorake and Lagundri can reach a height of seven meters. Surfing competitions are often held at Sorake beach.

The other famous tourist destination affected by the quake in BaoMatoduosubdistrict, South Nias, are the traditional houses, some of them over 400 years old.

According to a decree issued by President SusiloBambangYudhoyono at that time, the government had earmarked Rp 2.097 trillion (US$284 million) to carry out reconstruction and rehabilitation work in Nias.

Arif said that to improve tourism in Nias his office would synergize with a number of other related ministries to develop the needed infrastructure and facilities on the island, including a proper airport.

He expressed confidence that a proper airport and other supporting facilities would increase the number of foreign tourists in the region.

Nias, according to Arif, currently received some 25,000 tourists annually. With the planned improvements of infrastructure and facilities, he said, by 2019 the figure was expected to increase to 100,000 tourists.

The figure is expected to continue increasing such that by 2024 it is will be 1 million, Arif said.

“I am optimistic the target will be achieved because the Nias Islands have extraordinary potential for natural, marine and cultural tourism,” he said, adding that his ministry had included Nias architecture as a candidate for the best national architecture.

Meanwhile Law and Human Rights Minister YasonnaHamonanganLaoly, who is a native of Nias, said the move to grant free visas to 45 countries was made to help increase foreign tourist visits to Indonesia, including to Nias.

He asked regional administration leaders in Nias Islands to prepare a special program aimed at making local people welcoming and understanding of tourists.