Travel bans for Pertamina staff, Gold Manor director

Travel bans were imposed on four Pertamina staff-members and a director of PT Gold Manor International after recent corruption allegations were made against them, National Police announced Friday.

The travel bans were effective immediately, National Police spokesman Insp. Gen. Abubakar Nataprawira said.

The five were being investigated based on allegations they had enriched themselves in the procurement of Zatapi crude oil last year, a violation of the country's anti-corruption law, Abubakar said. However, he refused to mention the names of the suspects.

"They also have been named as suspects in this case, but we have yet to arrest them," Abubakar said.

"We will determine their further status after we complete our investigations."

Abubakar said the total amount of loss was being calculated by the State Development Finance Comptroller (BPKP).

Singapore-based oil importer Gold Manor won a Pertamina-sponsored tender to supply 600,000 barrels of Zatapi crude oil to Indonesia in December last year, and began shipping it to a Pertamina refinery in Cilacap, Central Java, in February, 2008.

Legislators of House Commission VII overseeing energy and mineral resources later revealed that Gold Manor's tender bid was incomplete since it did not include a detailed breakdown of the contents of Zatapi oil.

The Attorney General's Office began investigating the case on Mar. 2. Last month, police named four Pertamina staff members (including a vice president and a former director) as suspects in the case.

Over the past two weeks, law enforcers have searched Pertamina's offices. Pertamina president director Ari Soemarno has repeatedly denied any irregularities in the Zatapi imports. He says they did not cause any losses to Pertamina.

"In fact, Pertamina benefits from Zatapi's lower prices. We saved US$5.50 for each barrel of Zatapi oil we imported. Thus, in total, we have saved US$3 million from 600,000 barrels of Zatapi oil," Ari said.

However, the House of Representatives inquiry committee, which was set up recently to study the management of oil and gas in Indonesia, said the case was just "the tip of the iceberg" in dealing with Pertamina.

Pertamina, the sole distributor of subsidized fuels, imports both crude oil and fuels to meet domestic demand. Last year, Pertamina imported an average 321,000 barrels per day (bpd) of crude and between 300,000 and 350,000 bpd of fuel to help meet domestic demand of one million bpd. (ast/alf)