ICW reveals massive graft at PTPN XIII

ICW reveals massive graft at PTPN XIII

JAKARTA (JP): Indonesian Corruption Watch (ICW) reported on
Tuesday losses of more than Rp 234 billion (US$29 million) in
three state-related companies because of alleged corruption.

Teten Masduki, an executive of the anticorruption board, said
the alleged corruption involved PT Perkebunan Nusantara XIII
(PTPN XIII), the Pelaihari sugar mill and the Jababeka train
project.

He charged that the corruption losses in PTPN XIII, which
manages oil palm plantations in West and South Kalimantan alone
amounted to Rp 106.7 billion.

According to the ICW findings, the corruption in PTPN XIII
occurred in the sales of crude palm oil and oil palm kernel
during the period between Jan. 1, 1997 and July 31 of this year,
and on the sales of refined bleached deodorized olein (RBD olein)
between May and July this year.

"PTPN XII's officials allegedly marked down the price of the
company's CPO, oil palm kernel and olein during that period. They
sold the commodities at the reference prices set by the KPB (the
state joint marketing office for agriculture products) but they
reported that the commodities were sold at lower prices," Teten
said.

ICW's secretary Abdullah Kamil said that officials of PTPN
XIII had manipulated their financial reports to hide the alleged
corruption.

"The commodities were sold for at least 25 percent higher than
the prices they reported," Kamil explained.

In addition to the alleged corruption on the sales of CPO and
its derivatives, ICW also reported alleged collusion practices in
the procurement of the plantation company's heavy equipment,
which might have inflicted losses of Rp 2.8 billion to the
government, he said.

Teten also said that ICW suspected state surveyor PT Sucofindo
had intentionally undervalued the assets of Pelaihari sugar mill
before the company was partially sold to PT Sylvatech Indonesia
and PT Centramas Aneka Niaga.

He said that Sucofindo had marked down the assets of the
sugarmill to allow the two companies to buy its shares for below
the market price.

PT Sylvatech and Centramas bought 50 percent and 10 percent
stake in the sugar producer respectively from PTPN XIII.

He said that the asset manipulation could have inflicted
losses of about Rp 113 billion on the government.

ICW's ethics board member Bambang Widjojanto said that the
alleged collusive practices between the project head and the
tendering committee of Jababeka's train project might also cause
losses of at least Rp 11 billion to the government.

Bambang said that the contractor of the train project, the
Tekken-Marubeni-Wika (TMW) consortium of Japan won its contract
due to alleged collusion with the committee.

"The collusion caused losses to government and also
endangered public safety as the contractor did not use good
quality raw materials for the project and was not capable to do
its job," he said.

Under the contract, TMW was to build an operations control
system for electric trains linking Jakarta, Bogor and Bekasi.

Teten said that the results of ICW's investigations would be
sent to the Attorney General's Office and related ministries.

"We urge the government to continue our investigations and
take the people who misused their powers to court."

But he expressed skepticism over the government's political
will to investigate corruption involving high-ranking officials,
saying that the government's move to probe corruption was just a
half-hearted effort designed merely to boost its popularity.

He said honest investigations into the corruption allegations
might backfire on many of incumbent government officials because
they had also abused their powers to gain wealth in the past.

"Thus far, all the work of Attorney General Andi Muhammad
Ghalib has only protected the interests of former president
Soeharto. We cannot expect much from him," Teten said.

Teten urged the public not to hesitate in sending reports on
alleged corruption, collusion and nepotism practices to the
group. (gis)