Pertamina's boss tells the House: "Sorry for the letter"

State-owned oil and gas company PT Pertamina has apologized to House of Representatives Commission VII over a controversial letter that offended lawmakers during a hearing on Feb. 23, state news agency Antara has reported.

?We apologize to all lawmakers because the letter was not procedural,? Pertamina's President Director Karen Agustina said on Monday.

Beside some Pertamina officials, Energy and Mineral Resources Minister Purnomo Yusgiantoro, General Secretary of State-owned Enterprises Said Didu and its president commissioner Sutanto attended the hearing.

After the session Sutanto said that he was expecting both parties would end the dispute soon and that a similar incident would not happen in the future.

The polemic started when commission member Effendi Simbolon from the Indonesian Democratic Party of Struggle (PDI-P) said that if Karen intended to protect the interests of President Susilo Bambang Yudhoyono and Vice President Jusuf Kalla in Pertamina, then she was no different than a private security guard.

Effendi said that Karen?s limited experience at Pertamina was unlikely to do the company any good.

Things turned uglier when Pertamina's Corporate Secretary Toharso wrote to lawmakers on February 13 saying that Pertamina was very disappointed with the way the lawmakers had questioned the capacity of its current president director. He considered their questions extra to the initial agenda, thus breaking the House?s internal rules. (*)