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)