Five customs officials fired over Cirebon smuggling

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.