Pertamina ready to give its accounts on Balongan case as govt gives special attention to the case
Monday, September 4 2000 - 04:00 AM WIB
The president of state oil and gas firm Pertamina, Baihaki Hakim, said that his party was ready to provide information it has to law enforcers about the involvement of former energy and mines minister Ginandjar Kartasasmita in the development of Balongan refinery plant.
"As long as it deals with files and existing evidences that we have, we will not cover up his (Ginandjar's) involvement in Balongan problem," Baihaki told reporters while visiting Balongan refinery plant in Indramayu, West Java.
Earlier, Attorney General Marzuki Darusman said that his office would soon upgrade the investigation into 10 big graft cases in Pertamina, including those involving children of former president Soeharto, not excluding the Balongan case. The 10 cases are among 159 graft cases submitted by Pertamina to Marzuki's office.
Nevertheless, he promised to step up investigation against 3 big cases involving Ginandjar, namely the Balongan, Acro and Bontang cases.
Baihaki said that he was optimistic that Marzuki would deal the Balongan case seriously.
``Pak Marzuki has given his commitment that although that case is placed outside the 159 graft cases in Pertamina, he would legally process the Balongan case," Baihaki said.
Meanwhile, Minister of Energy and Mineral Resources Purnomo Yusgiantoro said that the Attorney General had promised him to give special attention to the Balongan case that had inflicted losses of up to US$800 million to the government.
"Pak Marzuki said that he would give special treatment to Balongan, outside the 159 graft cases in Pertamina. And the attorney general gave his commitment to bring the Balongan case to court within a period of three months," Purnomo said.
The minister said that the Balongan case needed special attention because the size of corruption was so large. "My friends abroad said that the Balongan project is a gold plated project."
He noted that Balonga refinery plant, with processing capacity of 125,000 barrels of fuel per day, cost the government $2.4 billion, while other refinery plants with the same capacity cost around $1.6 billion.