Legislators blame mismanagement in Pertamina

Legislators Priyo Budi Santoso and Pramono Anung blamed mismanagement in Pertamina, especially in the directorate of domestic storage and marketing (PPDN), for the recent fuel scarcity.

"I heard Pertamina's director of general affairs, Syahrial Daud, could not work with other the other directors. I know Syahrial was a remnant of the old regime, but he should be able to adopt a new paradigm," said Priyo, a legislator from the Golkar Party.

Pramono of the Indonesian Democratic Party of Struggle (PDIP) added: "PPDN director (Harry Purnomo) has no sense of crisis and sense of urgency in handling the recent fuel scarcity."

He said PPDN adopted a case-by-case approach, and not a comprehensive, integrated approach, in handling the fuel scarcity.

"Therefore, there must be an improvement in Pertamina's corporate culture. The people gives high expectation to Pertamina president Baihaki Hakim, who is known for his honesty and professionalism," Pramono said.

Meanwhile, Baihaki reported that Pertamina had secured an additional of 600,000 barrels of fuel to meet consumption needs in August. Those fuels would come from Singapore, Malaysia and China.

"All our import plans for our July and August stocks have been settled, with the largest commitment comes from Singapore," he said.

Meanwhile, Harry Purnomo reported that total premium stocks for July and August reached 2.2 million barrels.

And the director of processing, Ariffi Nawawi, said that fuel from Balongan refinery would fully flow in to Pertamina's storage in Plumpang in the first week of August. (*)