Martiono named Pertamina's new chief commissioner

Martiono named Pertamina's new chief commissioner

Leony Aurora and Ridwan Max Sijabat, The Jakarta Post, Jakarta

The government has decided to install Martiono Hadianto as the
new chief commissioner of state oil and gas company PT Pertamina
and replace two other board members.

"I signed the resolution taken in the shareholders' meeting
appointing Martiono Hadianto last night," State Minister for
State-Owned Enterprises (SOEs) Sugiharto said on Tuesday.

Martiono, who headed Pertamina for fourteen months after he
was elected in December 1998, will replace former state minister
for SOEs Laksamana Sukardi, a top politician from the Indonesian
Democratic Party of Struggle (PDI-P) who resigned from the board
last year.

Muhammad Abduh, a former deputy for finance of the National
Development Planning Agency (Bappenas), has come in to take
Syafruddin Tumenggung's place and Umar Said, once the secretary-
general of the Ministry of Energy and Mineral Resources, replaces
the former director general for budgetary affairs at the Ministry
of Finance Ansyari Ritonga.

Roes Aryawijaya and Iin Arifin Takhyan will remain on the
board of commissioners.

"I view the reshuffle as necessary to revitalize Pertamina,"
said Sugiharto.

He expected the new board of commissioners to better supervise
the oil and gas giant, and promised to work together to solve the
serious problems clouding the company, including the prolonged
disputes with ExxonMobil on the Cepu block, and with the Karaha
Bodas Company (KBC).

Negotiations are currently underway between Pertamina and
ExxonMobil to determine whether or not to grant a concession
extension for ExxonMobil, which expires in 2010, to operate the
huge oil and gas block in East Java.

Pertamina has also been engaged in a protracted legal battle
since 1998 with KBC that has accused the government of breaching
its contract by stopping a geothermal power project it was
developing in that year.

As for the board of directors, Sugiharto said the government
had no intention of doing a reshuffle, pending a review of their
performance for the 2004 fiscal year.

Pertamina's president Widya Purnama has been in the top
position since August last year.

Later on Tuesday, the state minister said the administration
would soon replace the presidents of several troubled SOEs,
including national flag carrier Garuda Indonesia, ailing carrier
Merpati Nusantara, and state insurance company PT Jamsostek.

"We are still reviewing the management of all state
enterprises with bad KPI (key performance indexes)," said
Sugiharto on the sidelines of a ceremony to hand over donations
from Jamsostek for tsunami-stricken Aceh.

He declined to name possible successors to head the SOEs.

Meanwhile, Jamsostek's president Achmad Djunaidi defended his
performance over the last four years, saying the company had
contributed a lot to national workers since his appointment in
2000.

"Besides settling corruption cases in the company, we have
showed good performance over the last four years," he said,
citing the unaudited net profit of Rp 3.3 trillion (US$360.65
million) that it booked in the 2004 fiscal year.