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)