ASIATODAY.ID, JAKARTA – The public in Indonesia is angry and disappointed. Pertamina, the state-owned company that has been so proud of for so long, has turned into a ‘nest’ for corruptors?
The Attorney General’s Office of the Republic of Indonesia named a total of nine as suspects in the case of corruption in the governance of crude oil and refined products at PT Pertamina for the 2018-2023 period.
The Deputy Attorney General’s Director of Investigation for Special Crimes at the Attorney General’s Office, Abdul Qohar, said the nine suspects consisted of six Pertamina Patra Niaga officials and three from the private sector. The two new suspects named by the Attorney General’s Office are Maya Kusmaya as Director of Central Marketing and Commerce at PT Pertamina Patra Niaga and Edward Corne as VP of Product Trading at Pertamina Patra Niaga.
“Investigators have found sufficient evidence that the two suspects are suspected of committing criminal acts together with the seven suspects that we reported yesterday,” he said in a press conference, Wednesday, February 26 2025.
The following is a complete list of nine suspects in the Pertamina crude oil corruption case: (1) Riva Siahaan, President Director of PT Pertamina Patra Niaga. (2) Sani Dinar Saifuddin, Director of Feedstock and Product Optimization PT Kilang Pertamina Internasional. (3) Yoki Firnandi, President Director of PT Pertamina Internasional Shipping. (4) Agus Purwono, VP Feedstock Management PT Kilang Pertamina International. (5) Muhammad Kerry Andrianto Riza, Beneficial Owner of PT Navigator Khatulistiwa. (6) Dimas Werhaspati, Commissioner of PT Navigator Khatulistiwa and Commissioner of PT. Jenggala Maritime. (7) Gading Ramadhan Joedo, Commissioner of PT Jengga Maritim and Director of PT Orbit Terminal Merak. (8) Maya Kusmaya, Director of Central Marketing and Commerce at PT Pertamina Patra Niaga. (9) Edward Corne, VP Product Trading at Pertamina Patra Niaga.
The Attorney General’s Office said the total state losses in this corruption case reached IDR 193.7 trillion. The details are losses in domestic crude oil exports of around IDR 35 trillion, then losses in crude oil imports through DMUT/Brokers of around IDR 2.7 trillion. Apart from that, the loss of fuel oil imports through DMUT/Broker is around IDR 9 trillion; compensation loss (2023) around IDR 126 trillion; and losses from subsidies (2023) of around IDR 21 trillion.
The amount of loss is a calculation of one year’s loss. The actual total loss suffered by the state is not yet known, but it is estimated to be greater.
President Prabowo’s promise
President Prabowo Subianto promised to improve governance after the case. He said the government works for the people.
“We will clean it up, we will enforce it. We will defend the interests of the people,” said Prabowo after the launch of the Indonesian gold bank service at The Gade Tower, Jakarta, Wednesday, February 26 2025.
Similar to the 2014 Oil and Gas Mafia Case
According to energy economics observer from Gadjah Mada University (UGM), Fahmy Radi, Pertamina’s mode of corruption in crude oil imports is similar to the practices of the oil and gas mafia which was uncovered in 2014-2015. At that time, Fahmy together with Economist Faisal Basri succeeded in exposing corruption in crude oil exports through the oil and gas governance reform team.
Fahmy and Faisal Basri succeeded in disbanding PT Pertama Energy Trading Ltd, abbreviated as Petral, a subsidiary of PT Pertamina, which was a nest for the oil and gas mafia. The dissolution of Petral occurred during President Jokowi’s first term (2014) in order to realize his campaign promise to disband the oil and gas mafia.
At that time, Sudirman Said, who served as Minister of Energy and Mineral Resources of Indonesia, formed an oil and gas governance reform team headed by Faisal Basri, assisted by 12 experts, one of whom was Fahmy Radi.
During 6 months of work, this team succeeded in exposing the practices of the oil and gas mafia at Petral. For example, determining the volume of crude imports through subterfuge, price games (mark-ups), and even shipping cost games.
“The method used to rob Modusnegara of money this time is similar to the previous oil and gas mafia’s method, namely, marking up imports of crude oil and fuel oil, upgrading the blending of fuel oil from Pertalite (Ron 90) to Pertamax (Ron 92),” he explained.
In practice, continued Fahmy, domestically produced crude oil is rejected for processing at Pertamina’s refineries on the grounds that the specifications do not match the refinery’s qualifications. To meet domestic needs, the solution is to import crude oil to be processed in domestic refineries.
“Because the refinery capacity is not sufficient, fuel oil must also be imported. And the amount of imports is very large. Unfortunately, the price of imported crude oil and fuel oil is inflated so that the country has to pay more. This is how cruel they are,” said Fahmy.
Sending imported oil or fuel by ship, said Fahmy, is not free from corruption. There is a mark-up on costs in shipping contracts, plus there are illegal costs amounting to 13 percent to 15 percent of the contract value.
“This is really crazy corruption. So it’s not surprising that the value reaches hundreds of trillions,” he added.
The actions of the oil and gas mafia, continued Fahmy, not only robbed the state of money, but also harmed Pertamax consumers because they mixed Pertalite which was sold for Pertamax.
“So that this robbery does not happen again, legal authorities must impose the maximum possible punishment on the suspect,” said Fahmi. (AT Network)
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