House forms Team 27 to monitor Pertamina past corruption cases
Eva C. Komandjaja, The Jakarta Post, Jakarta
House of Representatives Commission II and Commission IV have established the special Team 27 to monitor the investigation of corruption cases at state oil and gas company PT Pertamina.
During a closed-door hearing on Tuesday, the two commissions agreed to form the team, which will consist of 15 legislators from Commission II and 12 from Commission IV. The decision to form the team was taken in order to monitor the investigations and urge the Attorney General's Office and the police to resolve the cases.
"We hope the team can start working this week so that the attorney general and the police can also start with the cases, because we want to push them to resolve this as soon as possible," said Patrialis Akbar, a member of Commission II.
Patrialis also said Team 27 was not a replacement for the special committee formed earlier by the House to look into alleged corruption at Pertamina. The new team will act to follow- up on the special committee's work.
However, he expressed disappointment with the work of the special committee, which reported that of 159 alleged instances of corruption, there was sufficient evidence to pursue only eight of the cases.
"It is odd how the special committee narrowed down 159 cases to only eight cases, saying that the losses inflicted by the other cases were not big compared to the eight. No matter how small a corruption case, we still have to resolve it," he said.
The special committee was set up on Sept. 27, 2001, in a bid to recover lost state revenue and to punish corruptors.
The committee has said that it was hindered in its work because many important documents related to cases dating as far back as 15 years had been lost.
It also said that finding suspects was difficult because many had taken up residence abroad.
Almost all of the cases center around family members and associates of former president Soeharto.
Suspects include former minister of mines and energy Ginandjar Kartasasmita, former minister of mines and energy I.B. Sudjana and late Pertamina president Faisal Abda'oe.
Among the alleged cases of corruption are the technical assistance contracts (TACs) for the Balongan and Cepu oil fields. TACs have earned a bad reputation for being abused by politically well-connected businesspeople to access the oil and gas sector.
Construction of fuel pipelines in Java by PT Triharsa Bimanusa Tunggal, owned by Soeharto family members, was also allegedly tainted by corruption and nepotism.
No definite value has been given for the total losses suffered by the state in all these cases, but it estimated that the number is more than US$750 million.