KPK digs deeper into Bangkalan gas case

JAKARTA. The Corruption Eradication Commission (KPK) said on Tuesday that it suspected Bangkalan regency had established a bogus regency owned company to buy gas from a subsidiary of state-owned oil and gas firm PT Pertamina, intended as supply for gas-fueled power plants (PLTGs) in the regency.

The KPK has arrested former Bangkalan regent Fuad Amin Imron, currently speaker of the Bangkalan Regional Legislative Council (DPRD), for allegedly receiving “routine” payments from Antonio Bambang Djatmiko, the director of PT Media Karya Sentosa, the company that won the gas tender from regency owned company PD Sumber Jaya. Antonio has also been arrested in the case.

It is alleged that Media Karya bought the gas from state-owned Pertamina Hulu Energi West Madura Offshore (PHE WMO) in 2007, but that no gas was ever delivered to Bangkalan’s PLTGs, leading to the region suffering an electricity crisis for years.

“We’re still working on it [confirming the alleged bogus company],” KPK deputy chairman Zulkarnain told reporters at KPK headquarters on Tuesday.

Zulkarnain added that using an alleged bogus company as a means of corruption had become a general modus that graft perpetrators had used to hide their criminal activities.

“We’ve found many graft cases with such a modus. For example, in the Hambalang sports complex graft case, a number of alleged fake companies were intentionally established [to funnel dirty money from the project],” Zulkarnain added.

Zulkarnain called on the Law and Human Rights Ministry to increase its efforts to selectively study proposal documents from people and regional administrations that wanted to establish companies to ensure that no bogus companies would be used as means of corruption in the future.

He further said that the KPK investigation would further look into finding the gas that the administration had bought, as the PLTGs in Bangkalan had never received any gas since 2007.

“We’re expanding investigations in that direction. We’re currently mapping this problem to make sure we can identify it before we move further in the case,” Zuklarnain went on.

Zulkarnain also said that since his arrest, Fuad, who is a member of the Gerindra Party, had failed to provide KPK investigators with substantial information to reveal other questionable practices behind the gas tender agreement between the administration and Media Karya.

Following Fuad’s arrest, Bangkalan deputy regent Mundir Rofi said the administration would review the contract that it signed with Media Karya.

“Following the case, we think that it is important for us to evaluate the cooperation with Media Karya. We will also evaluate the performance of the regency owned company,” Mundir said last week.

Mundir said he had been unaware of the “routine” commitment fee that Fuad had received from Media Karya, until the arrest had been covered by the media. (Haeril Halim)