Tutut quizzed for alleged role in Pertamina scandal
JAKARTA (JP): Businesswoman Siti Hardijanti Hastuti "Tutut" Rukmana, the eldest daughter of former president Soeharto, was grilled on Tuesday for almost 10 hours at the Attorney General's Office over an alleged markup in a US$306 million government project.
A suspect in the scandal involving the Pertamina state oil and gas company, Tutut insisted that she was innocent, saying that she had been merely carrying out her "duty".
As the commissioner of PT Triharsa Bimanusa Tunggal, which led the consortium that was awarded the project, she said she had only demanded payment for the part of the contract that had been performed by the consortium so that it could repay its debts.
Brightly attired, Tutut arrived at the Attorney General's Office in a Mitsubishi Nimbus a couple of minutes before 9 a.m when the questioning was due to start, and was accompanied by her lawyer Amir Syamsudin and eight bodyguards. The questioning ended at around 6:30 p.m.
She was presented with some 60 questions by the prosecutors led by Tarwo Hadi.
The case centers on irregularities in the claim submitted by PT Triharsa to Pertamina in 1992 which stated that it had performed 14.4 percent of the work and demanded that the state- owned company pay it $36.69 million in part performance.
It turned out that it had completed only 6.4 percent of the work and that the amount that should have been paid was only $14 million.
"I believe I'm innocent and have not caused any losses to the state in this Pertamina project," she told journalists after the questioning.
"The payment was not used to cover our losses arising from the project to construct a fuel pipeline in Java after the government halted it, but rather to pay the debts we had incurred in connection with the project," Tutut added.
According to the prosecutors, PT Triharsa canceled the project in 1992 as it failed to obtain additional overseas financing.
Tutut claimed that the project was rescheduled by the government in accordance with Presidential Decree No. 39/1991 and could not subsequently be continued as her company fell victim to the financial crisis.
"There was no corruption, collusion or nepotism in the project because even though I was the one who signed the contract, the project was still canceled by the government," she said.
However, Deputy Attorney General for Special Crimes Bachtiar Fachri Nasution, said that there were indications that Tutut had violated the law and therefore should be named a suspect.
"The crimes also include her involvement in signing the demand made to Pertamina in 1992," he told journalists on Tuesday.
The other suspects in the case are former Pertamina president Faisal Abda'oe and Rosano Barrack, the president of PT Triharsa Bimanusa Tunggal.
Banks
In a late press briefing on the same day, the Attorney General's Office declared three former directors of Bank Indonesia suspects for abusing their powers in extending central bank emergency loans to a number of banks.
The suspects are Hendro Budiyanto, Paul Sutopo and Heru Supraptomo, the Office's spokesman Muljohardjo said.
"They violated the central bank's circular which ordered the board of directors to suspend clearing transactions for those banks receiving such loans whose accounts were still in deficit after Dec. 31, 1997.
"The three also failed to exercise their authority against the now defunct PT Bank Harapan Sentosa and PT Bank Dagang Negara Indonesia although they had already found out that the two banks had misused the liquidity funds," he said.
The prosecutors have named several former owners and directors of the recipient banks as suspects in the mischanneling of approximately Rp 138.4 trillion or some 95 percent of the Rp 144.5 trillion in liquidity supports extended to 48 commercial banks during the height of the economic crisis between 1997 and 1999.
So far, only officials of Bank Aspac have been brought to trial. (bby)