Plumpang meters to be calibrated

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.