The policy to write off receivables of problematic credit have yet to be implemented by the Board of Directors of State-Owned Banks due to the director’s worry of corruption case. The issue of receivables of problematic credit is still seen as corruption case because it causes state financial loss, although the Constitutional Court has determined such receivable is not the state receivables.
The issue was stated in the research result of doctoral student from Faculty of Law UGM, Henrikus Renjaan, S.H., L.L.M., during his doctoral examination at Faculty of Law on Monday (20/11). His dissertation is entitled The Importance of Implementation of Independence of Board of Directors towards the Write-off Principle of State-Owned Bank Receivables in Indonesia.
Henrikus said the business determination making principle that normally applies to limited liability has to be reaffirmed. The state, according to Henrikus, has to give full independence to the Board of Directors regarding restructuring policies and solve the problematic credit. “If the independence principle and good corporate governance can be implemented, no one worries about the risks of corporate policy regarding the write-off of receivables in such banks,” said Henrikus.
Henrikus said in the practice of banking business, if there is a loss because of the business policies, it can be comprehended as a business risk and not a loss, however, this is under the requirement that good corporate governance (GCG) and business judgment rule have been implemented.
Therefore, Henrikus recommends the needs of law reform on the conflict on public and private law norms regarding the management of state-owned banks as an independent legal entity. In addition, it requires regulation regarding the importance of GCG principle implementation in the special law or revising the existing regulation as well as the derived sanctions.
However, Henrikus said the policy to solve non-performing loans of state-owned banks are also vulnerable in terms of moral hazard in the implementation of receivable write-off, considering every stage of the write-off can be misused. “Bad creditor and debitor can make use any attempt to reacquire their asset,” he said.
In his opinion, Government Regulation No 33 year 2006 on Write-off Mechanisms of State/Region Receivables does not give enough certainty and legal basis for the state-owned banks to do receivable write-off as done by other private banks.