Legislators back retenders on pacts with Soeharto clan

Legislators back retenders on pacts with Soeharto clan

JAKARTA (JP): Legislators have backed the government's
decision to retender contracts held by family and friends of
former president Soeharto for shipment of state oil and gas
company Pertamina's products.

Djusril Djusan and Priyo Budi Santoso, both of the ruling
Golkar functional group, called yesterday for Pertamina to
conduct the retendering as soon as possible.

"The bidding should be open to all people without any
exceptions," Priyo said.

Minister of Mines and Energy Kuntoro Mangkusubroto said
recently he had instructed Pertamina to retender contracts
awarded to companies linked to Soeharto's family and cronies,
including contracts for the shipment of Pertamina's products, to
weed out those ventures which were exorbitantly costly to
Pertamina.

Pertamina and House of Representatives' data say between 120
and 149 companies linked to Soeharto's family and associates
conduct business with Pertamina.

Data shows Soeharto's family dominate most of Pertamina's
business aspects, including the shipment of liquefied natural gas
(LNG).

Pertamina's president Soegianto said in a recent hearing with
the House of Representatives that Pertamina currently operated
180 tankers, of which 40 tankers were owned by Pertamina and the
rest chartered from private companies.

The chartered tankers include 22 tankers owned by Samudra
Petrindo Asia of the Bimantara Group, which is controlled by
Soeharto's son Bambang Trihatmodjo, and four tankers owned by PT
Humpuss Intermoda Transportation, controlled by his brother
Hutomo "Tommy" Mandala Putra.

Bimantara and Humpuss Intermoda are both listed on the Jakarta
Stock Exchange.

House data says Samudra Petrindo holds exclusive rights to
deliver LNG from the Arun LNG plant in Aceh to South Korea, while
Humpuss holds exclusive rights to deliver LNG from the Badak LNG
plant in Bontang, East Kalimantan, to Taiwan and Japan.

"All contracts for the shipment of Pertamina's products were
awarded through open tender," Soegianto said during the hearing.

But Djusril claimed the contracts for the shipment of LNG had
been awarded to Samudra Petrindo and Humpuss exclusive of a
bidding process.

"Maybe what you mean by open tenders are tenders which are
open but decided upon in closed rooms," Djusril responded.

In its 1997 annual report, Humpuss also acknowledged Pertamina
did not hold a bidding process before awarding contracts for the
shipment of LNG, but simply appointed contract holders. (jsk)