Tutut quizzed for alleged role in Pertamina scandal
Wednesday, February 21 2001 - 04:00 AM WIB
The eldest daughter of former president Soeharto-- Siti Hardijanti Hastuti "Tutut" Rukmana, was grilled on Tuesday for almost 10 hours at the Attorney General's Office over an alleged markup in a US$306 million government project.
A suspect in the scandal involving the Pertamina state oil and gas company, Tutut insisted that she was innocent, saying that she had been merely carrying out her "duty".
As the commissioner of PT Triharsa Bimanusa Tunggal, which led the consortium that was awarded the project, she said she had only demanded payment for the part of the contract that had been performed by the consortium so that it could repay its debts.
She was presented with some 60 questions by the prosecutors led by Tarwo Hadi.
The case centers on irregularities in the claim submitted by PT Triharsa to Pertamina in 1992 which stated that it had performed 14.4 percent of the work and demanded that the state-owned company pay it $36.69 million in part performance.
It turned out that it had completed only 6.4 percent of the work and that the amount that should have been paid was only $14 million.
"I believe I'm innocent and have not caused any losses to the state in this Pertamina project," she told journalists after the questioning.
"The payment was not used to cover our losses arising from the project to construct a fuel pipeline in Java after the government halted it, but rather to pay the debts we had incurred in connection with the project," Tutut added.
According to the prosecutors, PT Triharsa canceled the project in 1992 as it failed to obtain additional overseas financing.
Tutut claimed that the project was rescheduled by the government in accordance with Presidential Decree No. 39/1991 and could not subsequently be continued as her company fell victim to the financial crisis.
However, Deputy Attorney General for Special Crimes Bachtiar Fachri Nasution, said that there were indications that Tutut had violated the law and therefore should be named a suspect.
"The crimes also include her involvement in signing the demand made to Pertamina in 1992," he told journalists on Tuesday.
The other suspects in the case are former Pertamina president Faisal Abda'oe and Rosano Barrack, the president of PT Triharsa Bimanusa Tunggal. (*)