URGENT: Chevron?s workers arrested by AGO on corruption charges

By Godang Sitompul

The Attorney General?s Office (AGO) has arrested four employees of PT Chevron Pacific Indonesia (CPI), on charges of being implicated in the corruption case related to the bioremediation project on former exploration areas.

The AGO arrested four employees of the company, a source told Petromindo.com on Wednesday without providing the names of those arrested.

Earlier, the AGO named seven suspects in the corruption case, including five PT CPI workers and two workers of PT Green Planet Indonesia and PT Sumigita Jaya, which is the contractor of the project. One of the PT CPI suspects, named Alexiat Tirtawidjaya, is reportedly now in the United States, visiting her sick husband.

CPI was quick to denounce the arrest, saying the move was deplorable. It insisted the workers had done nothing wrong.

?PT CPI and its workers have been cooperating in an open and transparent manner during investigations by the AGO. We deeply regret the fact that our workers have been detained. Any detention of workers and executives who have worked professionally and done their jobs in accordance with the existing regulations and company rules is certainly something that any company will regret,? Yanto Sianipar, Vice President of Policy Government and Public Affairs at CPI, said in a statement.

?The bioremediation project is a successful environmental-management project, which has been approved and monitored by the government. We believe the current investigation (into the project) by the AGO runs in conflict rules of works in the oil and gas industry in accordance with the production sharing contract. Under the PSC, all projects that can be realized and deserve cost recovery are put under the control of BPMIGAS and state audit agencies (BPK/BPKP),? Yanto added.

?All costs related to the bioremediation project carried out by PT CPI are not included in the cost recovery and, instead, has been wholly covered by PT CPI. That means there isn?t any state money that has been used for the project,? he said.

PT CPI will defend all its workers who have worked in accordance with the existing regulations and the company?s code of ethics; as well as the company?s reputation in public, Yanto said, adding that the company had carried out a tight process of selecting the contractor for the project and the selection had been approved by BPMIGAS.

Editing by Johannes Simbolon