Legislator blasts Pertamina as not serious in handling graft
Friday, June 30 2000 - 04:00 AM WIB
Legislator Permana Anung said Pertamina was not serious in probing graft allegations amounting to Rp 1.054 trillion, and even tried to cover them up by presenting some irresponsible arguments.
Pramono said if Pertamina continued with its past practices of protecting corruption, collusion and nepotism practices, locally known as KKN, it meant that the company was not serious in building its corporate image, and uphold the principles of clean and good corporate governance.
"I'm worried that past traditions in Pertamina as the source of KKN re-emerge," he said.
"Baihaki Hakim (Pertamina president) and other directors must work really hard to root out KKN, no matter how small it is. He may not considers the Rp 1 trillion KKN value as small, by comparing it with the total value of all projects," Promono said.
Baihaki said earlier on Thursday that graft allegations from the Development and Finance Comptroller (BPKP) were still allegations, and needed verifications. He noted that Rp 1 trillion was actually small compared with the total projects value of around Rp 34 trillion.
To tone down Baihaki statement, Pertamina spokesman Ramli Djaafar issued a statement and said the company was always open to BPKP's investigations and would take legal actions against any findings of corrupt activities.
"To prove the existence of corruption, further study of the findings is required," Ramli said in a press statement.
BPKP's audit encompassed Pertamina, its subsidiaries and its production sharing partners, covering the 1999/2000 fiscal year ending March 31.
Quoting the audit, Ramli said that BPKP found possible irregularities in Pertamina activities amounting to Rp 208 billion, of which some Rp 20 billion had been clarified.
Findings of possible irregularities in Pertamina's production sharing partners totaled Rp 820 billion, he said, with cases involving Rp 515 billion clarified.
He said that irregularities in Pertamina's subsidiaries totaled Rp 3 billion, of which cases worth Rp 1.5 million had been clarified.
He said that BPKP based its allegations of graft based on irregularities in the procurement of goods and services, unreasonable payments for work, fictional projects, faked documents, mark up practices, and nepotism.
BPKP's finding ranked Pertamina as first in corruption among all state-owned companies and agencies. (*)