Ginandjar, Sudjana named suspects in oil scandal
JAKARTA (JP): The Attorney General's Office (AGO) on Thursday named former minister of mines and energy Ginandjar Kartasasmita and his successor IB Sudjana, as suspects in corruption cases involving state oil and gas company Pertamina, which allegedly resulted in $24.8 million in state losses.
AGO Spokesman Muljohardjo said that Ginandjar illegally approved four technical assistance contracts between Pertamina and private oil company PT Ustraindo Petrogas in early 1992 and 1993.
"Our investigations and witness statements conclude that Ginandjar, as the minister of mines from 1988 until 1993 and chief commissioner of Pertamina, approved the deals in violation of regulations regarding technical assistance contracts for oil development, causing $18 million in state losses," Muljohardjo told reporters.
"Sudjana, as the minister of mines and Pertamina's chief commissioner from 1993 to 1998 also breached laws by approving amendments to the contracts, resulting in losses of $6.8 million to the state," he added.
Muljohardjo said that the two suspects will be prohibited from traveling overseas and will be questioned as soon as possible.
He said that prosecutors would send a summons to Ginandjar, who is still on a lecture program overseas, declaring that the AGO will not wait until his lecture program ends in July.
"The summons will be sent through our embassies in the U.S. and Japan, or with the assistance of our foreign ministry," he added.
The AGO found in its investigations that the deals between Pertamina and PT Ustraindo violated regulations on technical assistance contracts because they covered oil fields which were still productive at the time.
Moreover, while regulations required PT Ustraindo to pay the costs of oil development in the contract areas, it was Pertamina who actually bore the costs, thereby incurring total losses of $18 million to the state, Muljohardjo added.
The contracts with PT Ustraindo covered oil fields in Bunyu, E. Kalimantan, Prabumulih and Pendopo in South Sumatra, and Jatibarang on the north coast of West Java.
In February and March 1995, Sudjana, then minister of mines and energy, approved amendments to the contracts with PT Ustraindo, which resulted in a smaller government oil take, thereby incurring $6.8 million in losses to the state, he added.
The AGO has previously named two suspects in the same cases, including former Pertamina president Faisal Abda'oe and PT Ustraindo director Praptono H. Hupojo, a relative of former first lady, the late Tien Soeharto.
Earlier on Wednesday, in an interview with The Jakarta Post in Tokyo, Ginandjar flatly denied that he had committed any wrongdoings during his term in Cabinet.
"As a minister, I often made decisions on policies, but I was not involved in their execution by the executing agencies, such as Pertamina and (state-run electricity firm) PLN. While a minister, I did my best to avoid getting involved in technical matters and matters which were outside my sphere of competence," he said.
Ginandjar, who was in Tokyo to present a series of lectures at Waseda University, expressed concern that he would become the victim of a political conspiracy.
But Ginandjar said that he would obey an AGO summons, which Attorney General Marzuki Darusman said that he had been sent regarding his status as a witness in a corruption case relating to the construction of the Balongan oil refinery in West Java.
He indicated that he would return to Jakarta in July, soon after completing his academic commitments at Harvard University.
"I have offered to provide written testimony now and testify in person when I return to Jakarta. I strongly believe that one is not above the law. But I have begun to worry that the law is now being used as part of a witch-hunt that may well lead to prosecutions based on political objectives, not justice," said Ginandjar, who currently serves as vice speaker of the People's Consultative Assembly (MPR). (bby/prb)