Pertamina receives online payment to cut bribes

State oil and gas firm Pertamina's Domestic Storage and Marketing Unit (UPPDN) VI in Balikpapan, East Kalimantan, has launched online payment system with its clients through state-owned Bank Mandiri in a bid to reduce kickbacks and other illicit payments.

The head of Pertamina's UPPDN VI, Edisyah R., said on Friday (Dec. 15) that the implementation of online payment was to follow up an agreement between the central office of Pertamina and Bank Mandiri in Jakarta.

Edisyah said that UPPDN VI was the first UPPDN units in Pertamina that implemented the online payment system. "In fact, Kalimantan has never been prioritized."

Online payment, according to Edisyah, would not only cut illegal payments but also cut cost and save time for customers or agents in processing their delivery orders from Pertamina.

Before the implementation of online payment, agents would have to come to Pertamina's depot to get approval for the amount of fuels they would buy, then the agents paid the amount of fuels through appointed banks, then came back again to the depot to collect the delivery orders and get the fuels.

But the implementation of online payment would cut time and procedures that agents had to go through. Agents are not anymore required to go to Pertamina depot to get the approval. The agents will have directly go to bank to pay the amount of fuel they want to buy. After the transaction is completed at the bank, the delivery orders are printed automatically at the depot, and therefore, agents could sent their vehicles to the depot to collect the delivery orders and the fuels at the same time.

Edisyah said that his unit was also developing Internet banking for online payment, and therefore "agents would not need to go to the bank. They could do their transaction from their homes." (*)