House members question status of PTP Agrintara
JAKARTA (JP): House members wondered yesterday how PTP Agrintara, wholly owned by state plantation companies, could be classified as a private company, and be allowed to refuse an audit by the Development Finance Comptroller (BPKP).
Imam Churmem, deputy chairman of the House Agriculture Commission, said that only the finance minister is empowered to change the status of a state company into a private one.
Churmem was commenting on the recent remarks by PTP Agrintara's president Soeharno and Agriculture Minister Sjarifuddin Baharsjah to the effect that the Comptroller was not authorized to audit the company.
He was quoted by Antara as saying that Soeharno produced only a letter from the then director general for state companies Martiono Hadianto dated February 9, 1993, and another one from the chief of the finance ministry's legal affairs bureau Agus Haryanto to support his position on PTP Agrintara's private status.
"The two officials were not authorized to change the status of PTP Agrintara," Churmem said.
Strange
Aberson Marle Sihaloho, a member of the House Budgetary Commission, agreed that Soeharno's and Baharsjah's remarks seemed strange.
He wondered how a company wholly owned by state companies could be legally classified as a private company.
Another House member, Tajoeddin Noer, noted that even a joint venture between a state company and a private firm could be audited by the Development Finance Comptroller, let alone PTP Agrintara which is entirely owned by state plantation companies.
The letters of the finance officials, as quoted by Soeharno, did stipulate that PTP Agrintara, as the holding company of state plantations firms for developing downstream industries, is exempt from government procurement procedures, to make it flexible.
"So I think the Development Finance Comptroller should, indeed must, audit PTP Agrintara," Tajoeddin said, commenting on the recent letter from the comptroller's chief Soedarjono to the finance minister that his office's request to audit PTP Agrintara was turned down by the company.
An agricultural official, who insisted on anonymity, noted that the private company status, as claimed by Soeharno, was related only to the procurement procedures and not to accountability.
In fact, he added, PTP Agrintara's internal memos have shown how Minister Baharsjah had always been consulted by the company's president on any major operational decision and how Baharsjah also consulted Finance Minister Mar'ie Muhammad on the company's projects and financing proposals.
PTP Agrintara was recently alleged by several agricultural officials and organizations to have concluded questionable deals with two companies controlled by a businessman who is a close associate of Minister Baharsjah. (vin)