Pertamina's restructuring awaits President's approval

State oil and gas company Pertamina has sent a new format of its board of directors as part of its restructuring program to the State Secretariat to get the approval of President Abdurrahman Wahid so that the appointment of Pertamina's new directors would already follow the new format.

Pertamina president Baihaki Hakim explained that in the new format, Pertamina would have fewer directors. Pertamina would basically be divided into two basic units, namely the upstream businesses such as exploration and drilling and the downstream businesses such as marketing and shipping, and each would have their own directors.

Baihaki said that the restructuring of Pertamina's board of directors would be strengthened through a presidential decree, as the current structure of the board of directors was also governed by a presidential decree, No. 11/1990.

He hoped that the new structure would already be endorsed by the President by Dec. 10, 2000, when Pertamina would celebrate its anniversary.

Under the restructuring program, Baihaki explained that Pertamina would also reduce the number of its employees from about 25,000 people to about 18,000 people in the next five years.

"Currently we are still studying job descriptions and the impacts of the rationalization so that it would not bring about negative impacts on the management," he said.

Nevertheless, Baihaki said that Pertamina would also recruit around 200 young potential candidates to fill certain vacant positions. Currently, around 24,000 people had applied for the 200 vacant seats in Pertamina. (*)