JAKARTA - Director of Gas PT Pertamina (Persero) for the period 2012-2014 Hari Karyuliarto claims that there is no element of mens rea or evil intent in the alleged corruption case in the procurement of liquefied natural gas (LNG).
According to him, the back to back scheme and price review or price review that is questioned is not a form of evil intent.
"The practice of law enforcement from time to time still revolves around state losses and ignores mens rea," said Hari when met after the expert examination hearing at the Corruption Court at the Central Jakarta District Court, Thursday, quoted by Antara.
The back-to-back scheme is a banking loan or financing product whose collateral (security) is in the form of liquid assets, generally customer deposits or savings blocked by the bank.
Hari revealed that global LNG business practices do not require a back-to-back scheme in the development of a business portfolio. This has been confirmed by a number of parties, including former oil and gas sector officials and Pertamina directors.
In addition, he said that the practice of price review has never been the object of criminal cases in other countries. Price review is a mechanism for adjusting prices in contracts and price regulation procedures by regulatory authorities.
According to him, experts from the Financial Audit Agency (BPK) have also stated that the price review is not a form of evil intent, but a mitigation mechanism to maintain price stability.
"Price review is a zero-sum game, where one party can benefit or be harmed depending on the price movement," he said.
Hari Karyuliarto is one of the defendants in the case of alleged corruption in the procurement of LNG Corpus Christi Liquefaction LLC (CCL) at Pertamina and other related institutions in 2011-2021.
The case also dragged Vice President of Strategic Planning and Business Development of the Pertamina Gas Directorate for the period 2012-2013, Yenni Andayani, as a defendant.
The two defendants allegedly caused damage to state finances worth 113.84 million US dollars or equivalent to Rp. 1.77 trillion due to legal acts that enriched the President Director of Pertamina for the period 2009-2014 Galaila Karen Kardinah alias Karen Agustiawan worth Rp. 1.09 billion and 104,016 US dollars and enriched CCL by 113.84 million US dollars.
The illegal acts committed by the two defendants, namely Hari, allegedly did not prepare guidelines for the LNG procurement process from international sources and continued to process the LNG procurement from Cheniere Energy Inc.
Meanwhile, Yenni proposed Hari to sign the Circular Board Meeting Minutes regarding the decision on the signing of the LNG Train 1 and Train 2 sales and purchase agreement from CCL without being supported by economic studies, risk studies, and mitigation in the procurement process of CCL LNG, and without the buyer of CCL LNG who has been bound by an agreement.
Thus, the actions of the two defendants are regulated and threatened with criminal punishment in Article 2 paragraph (1) or Article 3 of Law Number 31 of 1999 concerning the Eradication of Corruption Crimes as amended and supplemented by Law Number 20 of 2001 in conjunction with Article 55 paragraph (1) jo. Article 64 paragraph (1) of the Criminal Code.
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