Police search Pertamina office on alleged graft

The police had conducted search on the office of state owned oil and gas company PT Pertamina in Jakarta on Thursday following an allegation of crude import grafts carried out by the company?s senior officials, Kompas reported on Friday.

The head of the Jakarta police department for corruption, Brig. Gen. Jose Rizal, said in Jakarta that the search was carried out on the 15th and 17th floors of the Pertamina headquarter in Jakarta to find out evidences on alleged irregularity in the imports of 600,000 barrels of crude oil from Singaporean company Gold Manor International carried out in February, this year.

The alleged import irregularity is estimated to cause the state to suffer financial losses of about Rp 427.5 billion.

The police have also named Pertamina?s four officials as suspects, including Rinaldi, Khairuddin, both former senior staff at the company?s crude processing department, Suroso Atmomartoyo, the former director of the processing department, and Chrisna Damayanto, the company?s vice president for planning and processing.

The police said the Singaporean company had won the tender to sell 600,000 barrels of crude oil to Pertamina without ?a crude oil essay?, an oil price analysis that had to be attached in bidding documents. (*)