Energy Ministry Secretary-General Named Suspect Over SKKMigas Bribery

Jakarta Globe, Rizky Amelia, January 16, 2014

Laborers stage a protest in front of the headquarters of the Ministry of Energy
 and Mineral Resource in Jakarta in this Jan. 16, 2013 file photo. (JG Photo/
Afriadi Hikmal)

The Corruption Eradication Commission (KPK) on Thursday announced that it had named the secretary-general of the Ministry of Energy and Mineral Resources as a suspect in a bribery case that has implicated the former head of Indonesia’s upstream oil and gas regulator.

Waryono Karno has been a suspect since Jan. 9, but the KPK only announced it on Thursday.

“From the result of the [case] development, the KPK has decided to name W.K., the secretary general of the [Ministry] of Energy and Mineral Resources, as a suspect,” KPK spokesman Johan Budi said in Jakarta.

He said Waryono was charged with gratuity and/or bribery, and that the KPK found in his office $200,000 in cash.

The serial numbers of the dollar bills, Johan said, are similar with those allegedly received by Rudi from company Kernel Oil as a bribe.

Rudi allegedly received more than $1.58 million in cash from Kernel Oil to influence the result of some tenders and recommending lower gas prices. He allegedly got the money from Widodo Ratanachaitong, a representative of Kernel Oil Singapore and Fossus Energy, through Simon Gunawan Tanjaya, the operational director of Kernel Oil Indonesia.

Rudi, Simon and alleged middleman Deviardi — Rudi’s golf trainer — are currently standing trial in the case.

Johan added the KPK on Thursday also searched the offices of three lawmakers, namely Sutan Bhatoegana and Tri Julianto of the Democratic Party, and Zainuddin Amali of the Golkar Party.

Rudi mentioned during the KPK inquiries that Sutan once asked for money from him to pay for holiday allowances for members of the House of Representatives’ Commission VII, which oversees energy, environmental matters and research and technology.

There’s suspicion that the money collected by Rudi was meant to be channeled to the Democratic Party to fund its upcoming congress to select a candidate for next year’s presidential election. Speculation has also arisen that Deviardi is a member of Democratic Party with close ties to Achsanul Kosasih, a member of the party’s central leadership board, and that he was picked as the middleman in the bribery transaction precisely because of his party affiliation.

Energy and Mineral Resources Minister Jero wacik and Democratic Party have denied any connections between the party and the scandal, and also denied that Deviardi was a Democrat.

Achsanul claimed that any attempt to link the SKKMigas case to the Democrats was just a malicious bid to tarnish the party’s image.