The Attorney General’s Office (AGO) is set to summon four officials from Internet and multimedia services provider PT Indosat Mega Media (IM2) for questioning in a Rp 3.8 trillion (US$422 million) graft case next week.
“We have scheduled a summons for operation manager Gustinus Bayuaji, sales retail manager Bambang Narayana, marketing manager Muhamad Sujai and billing and customer administration manager Nuniek Hendarti as witnesses in the case,” AGO spokesman Noor Rachmad told The Jakarta Post on Tuesday via a text message.
He said previously his office did not rule out the possibility of naming new suspects, including those from Indosat.
The company, whose president director, Indar Armanto, was recently named a suspect, had provided 3G mobile broadband services allegedly without the government’s permission.
Indar became IM2’s president director in June 2006.
In providing the service, IM2 allegedly used a 3G network frequency of 2.1 GHz that actually belonged to publicly listed PT Indosat, the country’s second largest telecommunications operator, claiming it as theirs through cooperation between the two companies.
IM2 is a subsidiary of Indosat, which has more than 40 million subscribers.
Indar is believed to have known the deal IM2 and Indosat made in 2007 under a false pretense.
Indar, who is also Indosat’s chief of corporate services officer, is charged with violating Article 2 and 3 of the 2001 Anti-Corruption Law of benefiting the company and causing the state losses.
The alleged misdeed is estimated to have caused roughly Rp 3.8 trillion in lost state tax revenues since 2007.
According to the AGO, IM2, the publicly listed company has violated Article 33 of a 1999 Telecommunications Law and Article 58 (3) of 2000 Government Regulation on Telecommunication Management, as well as the 2006 Communication and Information Technology ministerial regulation on 2.1 GHz Frequency Band Usage for Cellular and Mobile Network.
Under the provisions, mobile broadband service providers must have its own license as a 2.1 GHz/3G network organizer in providing a 3G service.
Noor said the company never participated in the selection for mobile cellular network band IMT-2000 at 2.1 GHz frequency band tender, nor paid its obligations as a 3G provider.
AGO has taken over the case from the West Java Prosecutors’ Office. The case came about after an NGO concerned with telecommunication services filed a report with West Java prosecutors late last year. (mtq)
