Fake documents discovered in sugar scandal

Fake documents discovered in sugar scandal

Zakki P. Hakim and Abdul Khalik, Jakarta

The Ministry of Industry and Trade said on Wednesday that
sugar imported by the Association of Village Cooperatives (Inkud)
from Bangkok was illegal, but the former denied any role in the
affair as accused by the latter.

Director General of Foreign Trade at the ministry Sudar SA
denied that he and minister Rini Soewandi had met with Inkud
chairman Nurdin Halid to personally arrange Inkud's cooperation
with state-owned plantation firm PTPN X in the importation of
sugar.

PTPN X is one of only five state companies licensed by the
ministry to import sugar. The limitation is aimed at protecting
local sugarcane farmers from cheaper, imported sugar.

Sudar claimed that he did not know why PTPN X worked with
Inkud, and said that it was PTPN X's prerogative to choose a
third-party partner if the company lacked funds or resources to
carry out the importation by itself.

Nurdin told lawmakers that the Ministry of Industry and Trade
had authorized Inkud to import the sugar during his meeting with
Sudar and Rini on Nov. 19, 2003.

Inkud, which is supposed to protect the interests of farmers,
has been at the center of the sugar scandal. The case grabbed the
headlines when a sugarcane farmers' association discovered 56,000
tons of imported sugar in several warehouses in Jakarta, Bekasi
and Bogor. The police later announced they had confiscated some
65,000 tons of sugar, believed to have been imported illegally.

Separately, Director General of Customs and Excise Eddy
Abdurrachman revealed on Wednesday that the documentation (bills
of lading) used by PT Phoenix in Bangkok to ship much of the
sugar were fake.

"We have compared the bills of lading used to apply for
eigenlossing (warehousing) with the genuine shipping documents in
Bangkok. We come to a conclusion that the documents used for
eigenlossing were fake," said Eddy on the sidelines of a hearing
with House of Representatives Commission V on the issue.

He added that the fake bills of lading stated that all of the
sugar was shipped before April 30, while the genuine documents
said that the sugar was shipped in May.

He also stated that seven ships used fake documentation to
carry a total 42,900 tons of sugar into the country.

Elsewhere, Sudar said that according to Ministerial Decree No.
643 (which authorized PTPN X to import some 108,000 tons of
sugar), the commodity was not permitted to arrive in the country
after April 30. This means that sugar arriving after that date
was unauthorized, he said.

Previously, Inkud insisted that based on the decree, sugar
shipped from Bangkok before April 30 was authorized.

Meanwhile, National Police chief of detectives Comr. Gen.
Suyitno Landung Sudjono said that the police had also discovered
that the eigenlossing documents used by the importers were fake.

"We have analyzed the documents and found many irregularities
such as an absence of headings and dubious signatures," he said.

He added that officials from Inkud and its consortium, as well
as people from PT Phoenix, could be named as suspects in the
case.

"We shall focus on them because they fabricated the documents
as if they were acting on behalf of PTPN X, while officials from
PTPN X knew nothing about it," said Suyitno.

He promised that suspects would be declared within a week,
pending completion of the investigation.