Pertamina wants graft cases in the company be pursued quickly

The president of state-owned oil and gas company Pertamina, Baihaki Hakim, hopes that the new attorney general to be appointed soon by newly-elected President Megawati Soekarnoputri move faster against 159 graft cases in Pertamina, Jakarta-based daily Kompas reported on Friday.

Speaking in Tanjung Balai Karimun, Riau on Wednesday, Baihaki said the slow processing of graft cases in Pertamina would only lower people's confidence in Pertamina. People would continue to think that Pertamina as an institution full of corruption.

"Without court decision, the people will never know how those cases evolve. If not solved soon, the people will say that graft cases in Pertamina are never solved," he said.

Nevertheless, he acknowledged that the Attorney General's Office would need extra works to deal with graft cases in Pertamina as most of the cases, lack of "black and white" evidence. And therefore, the challenge was that how to find strong evidence of graft in all those cases.

For alleged mark-up practices in Pertamina's Balongan refinery project, for instance, it needed hard evidence to support the allegation. Although the cost for Balongan project was clearly almost twice more expensive than a similar project, without strong evidence, the prosecutors' office would not be able to prosecute those behind the suspected mark-up.

In fact, a joint team for Balongan was still working, according to Baihaki. The team will soon go to Thailand to do bench marking, to know whether there had been mark-up practices in Balongan project.

A number of big names have been named suspects in a number of cases involving Pertamina, including former mines and energy minister Ginandjar Kartasasmita, and former Pertamina president Faisal Abda'oe. But none of their cases have been resolved through the court. (*)