Radius quizzed for twelve hours over Tutut case

JAKARTA (JP): Former senior minister Radius Prawiro was grilled for almost 12 hours at the Attorney General's Office on Tuesday as a witness in an alleged mark-up of a state project involving former president Soeharto's daughter Siti Hardijanti "Tutut" Rukmana.

Radius, who served several times as minister during the 32- year Soeharto's administration, warned state prosecutors after his questioning of the delicacy of the case, especially in providing evidence of irregularities in the project.

"In big projects carried out by the administration or by state-owned companies, the coordinating minister for economy, finance and industry office was usually equipped with a special team to appraise the projects," he told journalists before leaving the office at 8:30 p.m.

Radius served as the coordinating minister for the economy, finance and industry during the period in question between 1988 and 1993.

State oil and gas company Pertamina awarded the US$306 million project to construct an oil pipeline in Java to Tutut's company PT Triharsa Bimanusa Tunggal in 1987. The project was halted in 1992 since the company had yet to obtain foreign loans for the work.

PT Triharsa then claimed that it had performed 14.4 percent of the project and demanded $36.69 million as payment for partial completion of the project. It turned out that only 6.4 percent of the work had been completed which was valued at $14 million.

According to a legal audit performed by Luhut Pangaribuan's law firm soon after the case was submitted to the Attorney General's Office, Radius issued a letter on July 13, 1990 endorsing PT Trihasra to carry out the project.

The letter was responding to Pertamina's request to the coordinating minister to appoint the company in accordance with presidential instruction No. 1/1988 which obliged Pertamina to seek consent from the coordinating minister for each of its projects.

Deputy Attorney for Special Crimes Bachtiar Fachri Nasution said that Radius had also given approval to Pertamina to pay PT Triharsa for the unfinished work.

Radius failed to reveal whether there were irregularities in the project, saying he needed documents to help his failing memory.

The state prosecutors had earlier named two other suspects in the case, including PT Triharsa's director Rosano Barrack and former Pertamina director Faisal Abda'oe.

Attorney General Marzuki Darusman has repeatedly said the questioning of former minister of mines and energy Ginandjar Kartasasmita was needed in corruption cases, including the pipeline poject, which took place during his term.

Ginandjar, who is currently on a fellowship program in the U.S. until July, has said he could only give written testimony.

On the sidelines of his Egypt visit on Monday, President Abdurrahman Wahid accused Ginandjar of carrying out a smear campaign abroad against his government.

Speaking to the Indonesian community in Cairo, Abdurrahman said People's Consultative Assembly deputy speaker Ginandjar had been supplying false information on Indonesia to the media in the U.S.

"The international media, including CNN (Cable News Network), have been exaggerating the situation in Indonesia and I suspect that (one of their sources) must be somebody from Indonesia who lives in the U.S. and he is, I think, none other than Pak Ginandjar Kartasasmita," Abdurrahman said. (bby/byg)