Tutut named suspect in $306m corruption case<\/p>\n
JAKARTA (JP): The Attorney General's Office named
\nformer president Soeharto's daughter Siti Hardiyanti \"Tutut\"
\nRukmana on Friday as a suspect in a corruption case over a US$306
\nmillion project involving state oil and gas company Pertamina.<\/p>\n
\"Our investigation has led us to name her as a suspect in the
\ncase,\" Mulyohardjo, spokesman of the office, said.<\/p>\n
Other suspects in the scam are former president of Pertamina
\nFaisal Abda'oe and Rosano Barack, president of PT Triharsa
\nBimanusa Tunggal.<\/p>\n
In 1987 Pertamina had a plan to construct a 320-kilometer long
\nfuel pipeline in Java. Tutut was head of the consortium in charge
\nof the project, and also the commissary of PT Triharsa Bimanusa
\nTunggal (PT TBT). The company was later appointed by Pertamina to
\ncarry out the work.<\/p>\n
But PT TBT in 1992 applied for the cancellation of the
\nagreement, saying it couldn't acquire enough foreign loans to
\nfinance the project.<\/p>\n
The company claimed that it had finished 14 percent of the
\nwork and demanded that Pertamina pay work value compensation as
\nmuch as $36.69 million.<\/p>\n
Abda'oe made the payment on Jan. 7, 1993.<\/p>\n
\"It turned out that they had conducted only 6.4 percent of the
\nwork, not 14 percent,\" Mulyohardjo said, adding that the amount
\nthat should be paid was only $14 million.<\/p>\n
The state suffered at least $22 million in losses.<\/p>\n
In the morning the office summoned Tutut for questioning as a
\nwitness on Friday, but her lawyer Amir Syamsudin said she was
\nsick.<\/p>\n
\"We have repeatedly summoned her, but she always fails to
\nappear,\" Mulyohardjo said.<\/p>\n
He said that based on further investigation in the day,
\nprosecutors decided to name Tutut as a suspect not a witness.<\/p>\n
\"We will summon her again for questioning,\" he said without
\nelaborating.<\/p>\n
Soeharto's youngest son Hutomo \"Tommy\" Mandala Putra was
\nsentenced by the Supreme Court last year for graft in a 1995 land
\nexchange deal which caused the state to suffer Rp 76.7 billion
\n(US$8.07 million) in losses. A few days after President
\nAbdurrahman Wahid turned down his request for clemency, Tommy
\ndisappeared.<\/p>\n
He is still at large.<\/p>\n
On Wednesday, Tutut's younger brother Sigit Harjodjudanto was
\ngrilled by the Attorney General's Office for his alleged part in
\nthe alleged $113 million mark-up of the Balongan oil refinery
\nproject in Indramayu, West Java.<\/p>\n
The Attorney General's Office is scheduled to question former
\nmining and energy minister Ginandjar Kartasasmita, who is
\nstudying in Harvard University, Boston, over the same case on
\nTuesday.<\/p>\n
Two weeks ago, the national police questioned Bambang
\nTrihatmodjo for nearly three hours in connection with the
\nacquisition of the assets of textile company Kanindotex, but
\nSoeharto family lawyer Juan Felix Tampubolon insisted that
\nBambang was questioned only as a witness in the case.<\/p>\n
Soeharto was to be sent to court last year in a US$571 million
\ncorruption case but the South Jakarta District Court refused to
\ntry him on the grounds that he was too sick to stand trial. The
\nSupreme Court earlier this month ordered state prosecutors to
\nprovide medical treatment until he is declared fit enough to
\nstand trial.<\/p>\n
Failure<\/p>\n
Earlier on Friday, the Indonesia Corruption Watch (ICW) called
\non President Abdurrahman Wahid to replace Attorney General
\nMarzuki Darusman for his failure to settle corruptions cases and
\nto uphold the law.<\/p>\n
\"We need a new Attorney General who has vision, high moral
\nintegrity, credibility, courage and who is professional in
\neradicating corruption,\" ICW Coordinator Teten Masduki told a
\npress meeting at his office.<\/p>\n
He said the President should replace Marzuki if he is serious
\nin his efforts to accelerate the fight against corruption,
\ncollusion and nepotism.<\/p>\n
Teten also accused Marzuki of having a conflict of interests
\nbecause as one of top executives in the Golkar party, on the one
\nhand Marzuki must develop the party, but on the other hand he has
\nto investigate and send other Golkar's executives to court.<\/p>\n
Teten said that prosecutors had a certain working pattern in
\ntheir handling of corruption cases: charging them in obscure
\nindictments to allow judges to twist the criminal elements in the
\nprosecutors' charges into a civil case.<\/p>\n
This was reflected in the judicial process of the defendants
\nin the Bank Bali Rp 904 billion case which ended in the court's
\nexoneration of defendants Djoko S. Tjandra and Pande N. Lubis.<\/p>\n
ICW had also listed hundreds of names allegedly involve in 15
\ncorruption cases the Attorney Office failed to question.<\/p>\n
Among the 15 cases were the corruption scam at the State
\nLogistic Agency, the US$6 billion corruption at state-own oil
\nmining company Pertamina, the bribery of former Attorney General
\nM. Andi Ghalib, Rp 572.2 billion corruption at state-owned Bank
\nRakyat Indonesia, Rp 9.6 trillion corruption at Texmaco group
\ncompany, corruption at the Clove Buffer Stock and Managing
\nAgency, corruption scam at Paiton 1 hydraulic power plant
\nproject, corruption at Exor Balongan oil refinery project,
\ncorruption at Freeport, Rp 138 trillion corruption in the
\nGovernment Liquidity Support Funds and Rp 7.1 billion corruption
\nat state-owned insurance company PT Jamsostek.(01\/sim)<\/p>",
"url": "https:\/\/jawawa.id\/newsitem\/tutut-named-suspect-in-306m-corruption-case-1447893297",
"image": ""
},
"sponsor": "Okusi Associates",
"sponsor_url": "https:\/\/okusiassociates.com"
}