T

he National Police have named former Pertamina Foundation executive director Nina Nurlina Pramono a suspect in a graft case involving one of the foundation'€™s corporate social responsibility (CSR) projects.

Embattled National Police detective division chief Comr. Gen. Budi Waseso confirmed that Nina, who joined the race for the next batch of Corruption Eradication Commission (KPK) commissioners, was one of many suspects who allegedly misused funds from the foundation'€™s program to plant 100 million trees under her direction between 2012 and 2014.

'€œYes [Nina] has been named [a suspect],'€ he said at the National Police headquarters in South Jakarta.

Budi added that investigators handling the case had already sent a notification of the commencement of an investigation (SPDP) to the Attorney General'€™s Office (AGO) earlier this week before raiding the foundation'€™s office in South Jakarta on Tuesday.

According to investigators handling the case, the foundation, which is tasked with managing the CSR funds of state-owned oil and gas firm Pertamina, used state funds of up to Rp 46 billion (US$3.23 million), Rp 137 billion and Rp 70 billion in 2012, 2013 and 2014, respectively, for the tree-planting project.

Police investigators have estimated that losses from the alleged graft in the CSR project amounted to Rp 126 billion.

In a copy of the SPDP obtained by The Jakarta Post, police investigators accuse Nina of enriching herself through the abuse of power and money laundering as stipulated in the 1999 Corruption Law and the 2010 Money Laundering Law. If found guilty, Nina could face a maximum prison sentence of 20 years or a fine of Rp 10 billion.

The National Police'€™s director for special economic crimes, Brig. Gen. Victor E. Simanjuntak, said that Tuesday'€™s raid at the foundation'€™s headquarters was a success.

'€œWe confiscated many documents relating to PF [Pertamina Foundation]. Among those documents are reports that we have to clarify: several reports insinuated that some of the program'€™s volunteers were nonexistent, while other reports show that while it costs Rp 10 to plant one tree, the money was not given to the volunteers,'€ he said.

Separately, Pertamina corporate communication vice president Wianda Pusponegoro told the Post on Thursday that the company would continue monitoring how police handled the case.

However, Wianda emphasized that Pertamina had yet to receive official information regarding the decision to name Nina a suspect.

'€œThe point is, Pertamina Foundation and Pertamina are two different entities with different legal bodies. However, we will continue to monitor the case and see what kind of legal support we can offer the suspect,'€ she said.

Wianda also acknowledged that the CSR program had been shut down after an internal audit in 2014. However, Wianda declined to disclose the results of the audit that led to the shutting down of the program.

'€œSince this is currently being investigated by the [police force'€™s] detective division, we can'€™t reveal anything unless there is official testimony to the law enforcers,'€ she said.

When Nina was asked about the alleged misused funds in the program by the KPK commissioner selection team last Tuesday, the former executive director said that the public auditor who had reported that only 30 percent of the project had been realized misunderstood the data, having only taken a 0.05 percent sample of the total project.
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