Five customs officials fired over Cirebon smuggling

Nana Rukmana, The Jakarta Post, Cirebon

At least five officials of the Cirebon customs and excise office in West Java have been dismissed from their posts following the smuggling of 19 containers with luxury cars and electronic goods inside.

Customs and Excise Director General Permana Agung confirmed on Saturday that the high-profile case was a "serious consideration" behind the removal of the five local officials.

"The case has certainly become a special notice for their dismissals," he added.

He did not say whether or not they were actually involved in the smuggling, which caused Rp 20.5 billion in losses to the state, however.

Tarsiwan, head of the Cirebon customs and excise office itself, was not among the five discharged officials, which included customs division I head Jusril Chaniago; customs division II head Erman Anas, and documentation and information division head Bambang Tri Hono.

The other two dismissed, Giarto and Masri Abdullah, were both heads of separate subdivisions.

The five would be assigned to new jobs outside Cirebon.

The smuggling case has turned into a prolonged polemic among the Cirebon authorities, the customs and excise office and legislative council, as it appeared to implicate senior officials at the local level.

The 19 containers, carrying four luxury cars and hundreds of electronic goods, were discovered as they were being smuggled in from Singapore via the port of Cirebon on Jan. 10.

The investigation into the scandal is underway, but the local customs and excise office released at least 17 of the containers on March 8, claiming that they did not have any smuggled goods inside.

Permana defended the release of the 17 containers by saying that "the problem with these 17 containers is over ... but we are still holding onto the two others as evidence until the investigation is completed."

"We expect to be able to hand investigation dossiers over to the Cirebon prosecutor's office on Monday," he added.

The city's legislative council objected to the move, however, and demanded that they be sent back the seaport as evidence.

In addition to their own investigation, council members would also rely on the results of hearings with prosecutors, police, customs, and PT Pelindo officials, council speaker Suryana said. (PT Pelindo is the company in charge of managing the port.)

Suryana added that the dismissal of the officials was not sufficient.

"We continue to demand that the case be resolved fairly and honestly. The officials' removal is merely an internal sanction, and will not settle the core problem," added Suryana, who also leads the council's investigative team.

The legislature censured the city's customs and excise office, along with the police and prosecutor's offices, and demanded that the local heads of the three offices -- and the director of PT Pelindo -- be removed from their posts for not being able to discover who was at the root of the smuggling.

The prosecutor's office has named Soenarko Kasidin, the director of private company PT Tiang Grage -- the owner of some of the containers -- as a suspect in the case.

The council, however, questioned the decision to charge the businessman, saying that he was not likely a key player in the case, and could have easily been victimized by the conspiracy.