PwC audit finding on Pertamina
Please allow me, personally and on behalf of the MOI-MASP Solidarity Forum, to appeal for an explanation on whether the PwC Audit Finding on Pertamina (April 1, 1996 to March 31, 1998) relates to the Mobil Oil MASP program. This is urgent as this MASP has made many people suffer.
I strongly believe this audit finding does relate to the Mobil Oil MASP effected in October 1996 for the following reasons:
1. Pertamina's obligation to pay Big Table Severance pay referred to Pertamina's letter No. R164 dated July 5, 1996, has not to date been paid by the company to MASP takers.
2. The term "Big Table Severance pay" is a common term at Mobil Oil as agreed to by Pertamina.
3. In 1995, when "the full funding of the pension fund" was made, Dapekami's accumulated fund was approximately Rp 90 billion (US$36 million).
Mobil Oil is the only Oil Contractor approved by the Minister of Finance to manage the "Defined Pension fund Benefit (Dapekami)". Unfortunately, this fund was used by the company to pay Big Table Severance pay. This is evidenced in an affidavit pertaining to the MASP payment. It was also agreed upon by the "Head of Pertamina BPPKA, Gatot K. Wiroyudo", as per his letter No. 4101/L0I00/98-S8 dated July 29, 1998.
Hence, Big Table Severance pay which is a company's obligation, as stipulated in Pertamina's letter No. R164/L000/96- S8 dated July 5, 1996, has not to date been paid to MASP takers. Now the fund has become an audit finding of PWC as Pertamina's obligation to pay Big Table Severance pay to MASP takers. 4. When a mass termination was effected at Pertamina in 1994/1995, Pertamina no longer had outstanding obligations to its ex-employees. While a mass termination at ARCO was only effected in March 1999. During the period from January 1996 to December 1998, Mobil Oil was the only company under Pertamina that had a mass termination program. And this audit finding of PwC covers the period from April 1, 1996, through March 31, 1998.
All the above reasons strongly prove that the PwC audit finding on Pertamina's obligation to pay Big Table Severance pay to the amount of $36 million consists of outstanding Big Table Severance pay payable by the company to employees who took the MASP program in October 1996. The remaining amount represents the Dapekami fund balance to active members (participants).
Thus, in issuing a report to Pertamina, Mobil Oil has presented an incorrect report, in other words, by manipulating data. Whatever the reason is, Mobil Oil as the author of such a report has committed a crime.
A warning letter from the MOI-MASP Solidarity Forum lawyer to Mobil Oil dated Sept. 17, 1999, has not to date been responded to by Mobil Oil. Thus, consistent with legal procedure, this case is fit for referral to a court as soon as possible, a plan which is currently in place.
Again, please explain this matter urgently, so that this case will soon be settled. Delays will have a negative impact on the image of our country's oil industry.
PAUL D. MUSAK
MOI-MASP Solidarity Forum
Jakarta