Plumpang meters to be calibrated

Evi Mariani, Jakarta

The Jakarta Police's environmental and resources division will supervise on Tuesday the calibration of 39 meters on master pumps in state oil and gas firm Pertamina's Plumpang fuel depot in North Jakarta.

"We have contacted officials of the Weights and Measures Directorate to help us calibrate the meters of the confiscated 39 pumps tomorrow," said division chief Adj. Sr. Comr. Ahmad Haydar on Monday.

The calibrations are being done in connection with a case of suspected fuel theft at the Plumpang depot. Police will keep at least one broken meter from the depot as evidence.

"We cannot stop the 39 pumps from operating because it would disrupt fuel supply in the city," he said.

Police also questioned on Monday two inspectors from the directorate -- Sogimin and Warsono -- as witnesses in the case of the inaccurate meters.

Haydar said the inspectors were the last to calibrate the meters in Plumpang, in early July. At that time, they only calibrated 17 meters, which did not include the 39 confiscated pumps. There are 88 total pumps in the depot.

"They told our investigators that they usually calibrated Plumpang's meters only if Pertamina officials asked them to," he said. "Apart from the on-call calibration, inspectors should have also performed routine checks once a year, not once every six months as I said earlier."

Police have suspected fuel theft and collusion between Plumpang workers and tanker truck drivers since March 2003. In early July, they found that 39 of the 88 pumps at the depot did not have accurate meters.

"There are indications on some of the meters that they were intentionally made inaccurate," Haydar said.

Police estimate that about 100,000 liters of fuel -- gasoline, diesel fuel and kerosene -- was being stolen every day from Plumpang and distributed to illegal fuel depots in Jakarta, Depok, Tangerang and Bekasi.

Officers raided 15 illegal depots from March 2003 to June 2004, seizing 378,000 liters of fuel.

Case files on the owners of six of the depots have been submitted to the prosecutor's office, while the remaining nine case files are still in the process of being completed, Haydar said.

Police said suspects could face several charges, including violating Law No. 2/1981 on weights and measures and Law No. 20/2001 on corruption.