House lists big names in corruption at Pertamina

House lists big names in corruption at Pertamina

Kurniawan Hari, The Jakarta Post, Jakarta

A House of Representatives (DPR) special committee of inquiry
into corruption at state oil firm Pertamina alleged on Friday a
number of former ministers and cronies as well as family members
of former president Soeharto were involved in various graft cases
at the company.

They include former state minister of technology B.J. Habibie,
former energy ministers Ginandjar Kartasasmita and Soebroto,
former finance minister Radius Prawiro, businessman and
Soeharto's crony and friend Mohamad "Bob" Hasan, sons Bambang
Trihatmodjo and Hutomo "Tommy" Mandala Putra and daughter Siti
Hardiyanti Rukmana.

Reading out a report to a House plenary session, Committee
chairman Emir Moeis called on law enforcers to arrest those
responsible for state losses of at least US$113 million from
various Pertamina projects.

Emir recognized that some of the cases had been investigated
by the police, and the cases had gone to the Attorney General's
Office. They included cases involving Ginandjar. But some others
are still untouched.

"The Attorney General's Office should cooperate with the
National Police to arrest the suspects," Emir said, reading out
the committee's final report during a plenary meeting here on
Friday.

The reading of the report was marked with interruptions from
numerous legislators from various factions.

The first came from Sidharto Danusubroto of the Indonesian
Democratic Party of Struggle (PDI Perjuangan) faction, who
demanded that Emir, also a legislator from PDI Perjuangan,
mention those implicated in those cases.

Emir then complied and went on mentioning names of those
implicated in those irregularities and this prompted protests
from other legislators, mostly from the Golkar Party faction.

Samsyul Bachri of Golkar, for example, emphasized that some
people mentioned in the report had not been declared suspects but
were only witnesses, and therefore, their names should not be
read out.

This Golkar protest was launched apparently because of the
exposure of Golkar's executive Ginandjar, who was involved in the
Technical Assistance Contract (TAC) along with Supraptono. Both
Ginandjar and Supraptono had been declared suspects.

But Emir went ahead to read the names of those allegedly
involved in Pertamina graft cases.

In the case of Exxor-I Balongan project, Emir said there were
three suspects: Thabrani Ismail, Ping Tamanis, and Eri Odang. Pin
is now a Singapore citizen and Eri is in the United States.

Emir added that other figures implicated in this project were
Ginandjar Kartasasmita, Kho Kian Kie, former economic minister
Radius Prawiro, and former mining minister Soebroto.

In the case of Perta Oil, an affiliate of Pertamina with
Nusamba, Dakab foundation, Supersemar foundation, and Humpuss,
Emir disclosed that Soeharto's former golfing buddy Bob Hasan and
son Tommy were involved.

Furthermore, Bambang Trihatmodjo, Siti Hardiyanti Rukmana,
Yosep Dharma Putra, Rosano Barrack of Bambang's Bimantara, and
former Pertamina director Faisal Abda'oe were involved in the
trans-Java pipeline project.

Former state minister of research and technology B.J. Habibie,
along with Yosep Brata, Tachril Sapi'ie, Mohamad Hasan, and
Faisal Abda'oe, were also listed among the figures involved in
the construction of the gas piping project in East Java.

Emir acknowledged that during its work the committee had
difficulty tracing documents related to the graft because "many
of the cases took place a long time ago".

"Some people related to those cases have moved overseas, to
Singapore and to the United States. So it is hard to bring them
to Indonesia," Emir said, adding that such constraints had
prompted the committee to seek more time to finish their
investigation.

The committee had worked from Sept. 27, 2001 through Feb. 21,
2003, questioning 27 witnesses.

However, interruption after interruption slowed Emir's reading
of the report. This prompted House deputy speaker A.M. Fatwa to
stop the session and ask the committee to complete the report and
present the report in another plenary session in the next House
sitting.