Former Pertamina executives have been implicated in a bribery case involving a British company. (JG Photo)
The Corruption Eradication Commission on Tuesday formally requested legal documents from a British court in which chemical company Innospec Ltd. last week pleaded guilty to bribing former senior executives at Indonesia’s state-owned oil and gas company PT Pertamina and a former Energy Ministry official.
Haryono Umar, deputy chairman of the commission, also known as the KPK, said the commission had sent a letter to Southwark Crown Court on Tuesday officially requesting the documents, which would be used as “preliminary evidence” in an investigation of the officials allegedly involved in the case.
“The documents will become a lead for us to conduct our own investigation. We want to see what pieces of evidence have been obtained by the court,” he said.
Hikmahanto Juwana, an expert on international law, said the court documents would have no legal standing in Indonesia but could prove important in the fight against corruption.
“The KPK could use them to construct a solid case to begin its own investigation,” Hikmahanto told the Jakarta Globe.
However, he said the KPK would have to re-examine witnesses, including officials from Innospec, the British arm of the US chemicals firm.
“We have our own code of criminal procedures and law. So testimony made to British law enforcement officials does not have any legal standing in Indonesia,” he said.
Haryono said the KPK could summon Innospec officials to testify in Indonesia with the help of British officials.
“This will be decided once we have obtained the necessary documents,” he said.
According to court documents, between February 2002 and December 2006 Innospec paid bribes to ensure that its lead-based fuel additive, tetraethyl lead (TEL), was chosen for purchase over other unleaded alternatives. An Indonesia government regulation banning the use of TEL was issued in 1999 but did not take effect until 2006.
The Indonesian officials implicated in the case, according to the British court documents, are: Rahmat Sudibyo, director general of oil and gas at the Energy Ministry in 2001-02 and head of upstream oil and gas regulator BPMigas from 2002-04; Suroso Atmomartoyo, Pertamina’s director of refining from 2004-08; and Mistiko Saleh, Pertamina’s vice president from 2004-06.
According to court documents, the bribes were paid from $17.48 million in commissions that Innospec paid its local agent, PT Soegih Interjaya.
Former Energy Minister Purnomo Yusgiantoro on Monday sought to distance himself from the case, which occurred on his watch. Purnomo was energy minister from 2001 to 2009 before taking over as defense minister.
He said the decision to delay a ban on leaded fuel until 2006 was taken to save money and not because senior decision makers had been bribed.
Also on Monday, BPMigas head Raden Priyono sought to distance the regulator from the accusations, saying the agency is only responsible for the upstream sector, while the use of leaded fuel was a downstream issue.
“It was more related to the directorate general of oil and gas at the Energy Ministry,” Raden said. “It was only because Rahmat was head of BPMigas after he headed the directorate that our name was mentioned.”
Rahmat rejected allegations of wrongdoing when contacted by the Jakarta Globe on Friday, saying he had never been involved in the purchase of TEL from Innospec.
Suroso also denied any involvement in bribery.
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