Suspect named in sugar scandal

Abdul Khalik and Zakki P. Hakim, Jakarta

An employee of a consortium that imported sugar from Thailand, Effendy Kemek, was declared a suspect on Friday in the scandal over 56,000 tons of illegal sugar, following his confession that he faked documents to place the commodity in a port warehouse.

National Police chief Gen. Da'i Bachtiar said that Effendy was an employee of one of the partner companies in the consortium formed by the Association of Village Cooperatives (Inkud) to import sugar from Thailand on behalf of Inkud.

"He is an operational-level employee who takes care of documents in the port. We are now investigating who ordered him to falsify the documents because it is impossible that he would have done this on his own initiative," said Da'i.

Director of the National Police financial crimes division Brig. Gen. Samuel Ismoko said Inkud received the license from PTPN X and formed a consortium comprising five partner companies to handle the importation. This consortium then made a business deal with PT Phoenix, he said.

The consortium members were PT Kencana Gula Manis, CV Surya Hendra Utama, PT Megaraya Sejahtera, PT Iroda Mas and UD Gunung Sewu. Da'i did not say which company employed Effendy.

Director General of Customs and Excise Eddy Abdurrachman had said that documents used by PT Phoenix to ship much of the sugar were fake.

He said that his office had found out that the bills of lading used to apply for eigenlossing (warehousing) were fake after comparing them with the genuine shipping documents in Bangkok.

Eddy added that the fake bills stated that all of the sugar was shipped on April 30, while the genuine documents said that the sugar was shipped in May. Inkud insisted that all of the sugar was shipped before April 30, the expiry date for PT Perkebunan Nusantara (PTPN) X to import sugar.

Da'i said police had been questioning Abdul Waris Halid, the head of the general trade division of Inkud, since Thursday for an explanation on the fake documents.

"We interrogate him for that long because Inkud is responsible for all the operational aspects of the importation," said Da'i.

He added that police had put two consortium members on the wanted list for defying a police summons. A police investigator said that one of the fugitives was identified as Jack Tanim, the consortium chairman.

He added that police would question every relevant individual as witnesses, including a minister if necessary.

On the same day, Minister of Industry and Trade Rini MS Soewandi said that she would be willing to become an expert witness if the police required her assistance regarding the smuggled sugar, and added that she was ready to be held responsible if it was found she had been negligent in dealing with the matter.

"I've told Da'i Bachtiar the police could summon me as an expert witness anytime," she told a media conference.

She denied that she personally knew Inkud chairman Nurdin Halid, let alone that she had had a meeting with him to discuss sugar import licenses.

Rini said that it was all right for the five listed sugar importers, PT Perkebunan (PTPN) IX, PTPN X, PTPN XI, PT Rajawali Nusantara Indonesia (RNI) and PT Perusahaan Perdagangan Indonesia (PPI), to work with other companies over fund bridging, distribution or warehousing, but not to relinquish their importation rights.

State-owned plantation firm PTPN X made an agreement on Feb. 16 with Inkud for the latter to import a total of 108,000 tons of white sugar on behalf of PTPN X, according to a copy of the agreement submitted to the House of Representatives.

A sugarcane farmer's association then discovered 56,000 tons of sugar in warehouses in Tanjung Priok, Jakarta, and in Bekasi and Bogor, that had arrival dates beyond the April 30 deadline.

Rini said that according to Ministerial Decree No. 643 (which authorized PTPN X to import some 108,000 tons of sugar), the commodity was not permitted to arrive in the country after April 30. That meant that sugar arriving after that date was unauthorized, she said.