Pertamina asked to clarify bribery report

Pertamina asked to clarify bribery report

JAKARTA (JP): A legislator called on state oil and gas company
Pertamina on Friday to clarify a report that it had awarded a
business contract to a former legislator in return for his help
in blocking the oil and gas bill.

"Pertamina should clarify the report. If the report is true,
Pertamina should explain how this could happen," Josep Umar Hadi
of the Indonesian Democratic Party of Struggle (PDI Perjuangan)
told The Jakarta Post.

Josep made the statement following a report in Bisnis
Indonesia that Pertamina had awarded a contract to South Korean
firm IL Chil Chemical to distribute purified terephthalic acid
(PTA) products of the state company's refinery in Plaju, South
Sumatra, in the South Korean market.

According to the newspaper, former legislator Rahadi Sayoga
was an executive at the South Korean firm.

The newspaper said head of Pertamina's foreign marketing
division John L. Tanamal awarded the contract to the company in a
letter addressed to Rahadi on Aug. 5, 1999.

"We agree to sell PTA to your company, with the first delivery
amounting to 8,000 tons of PTA," Tanamal said in the letter.

Previously, Pertamina appointed PT Humpuss Trading, which is
owned by former president Soeharto's son Hutomo Mandala Putra, to
distribute the products.

But Pertamina annulled the contract in the wake of Soeharto's
downfall last year as part of the company's efforts to root out
corruption, collusion and nepotism in its business.

The newspaper hinted that awarding the contract to the South
Korean company was likely connected to Rahadi's move during
debates on the oil and gas bill.

He is known to be strongly opposed to the oil and gas bill,
proposed by Minister of Mines and Energy Kuntoro Mangkusubroto,
aimed at liberalizing the country's oil and gas sector and
scrapping Pertamina's decade-long monopoly.

Rahadi and most of the members of the House of
Representatives' special committee for the deliberation of the
bill demanded that the new oil and gas law still maintain most of
Pertamina's privileges, including the right to award oil and gas
contracts.

Rumors have it that the legislators accepted bribes from
Pertamina to block the bill, but there is no evidence to support
the claim.

Another rumor said it was Kuntoro who tried to bribe
legislators.

The House officially rejected the bill last month after it
failed to reach a compromise with Kuntoro after six months of
debates and lobbying.

It is the first government-proposed bill to be rejected by the
House, at least in the 33 years of the Soeharto and B.J. Habibie
administrations.

Rahardi denied on Friday the press report.

"The report is completely wrong. I don't even know who Il Chil
Chemical Ltd is. How could I become an executive of a South
Korean firm?" Rahadi told the Post.

Pertamina spokesman Ramli Djaafar was not available for
comment on Friday. (jsk)