Former Pelindo President Director RJ Lino Sentenced To 4 Years In Prison, Lighter Than The Prosecutor's Demand

The defendant in the alleged corruption case in the procurement of three Quay Container Crane (QCC) units at PT Pelindo II in 2010 Richard Joost Lino

JAKARTA - Former President Director of PT Pelabuhan Indonesia II Richard Joost Lino alias RJ Lino was sentenced to 4 years in prison plus a fine of IDR 500 million, subsidiary to 6 months in prison for being proven guilty of corruption in the procurement and maintenance of 3 Quayside Container Crane (QCC) units in 2010.

"The trial, stated that the defendant Richard Joost Lino alias RJ Lino was proven legally and convincingly guilty of committing a criminal act of corruption together as the first indictment. Sentencing the defendant with a prison sentence of 4 years plus a fine of IDR 500 million, subsidiary of 6 months in prison," said member judge Teguh Santoso at the Jakarta Corruption Court (Tipikor), Tuesday, December 14.

The verdict was read by the member judges because the chairman of the panel of judges, Rosmina, expressed a dissenting opinion on the decision.

The verdict is lighter than the demands of the KPK public prosecutor (JPU) who requested that RJ Lino be sentenced to 6 years in prison plus a fine of IDR 500 million, subsidiary to 6 months in prison.

RJ Lino was found guilty of carrying out the second alternative indictment of Article 3 of Law No. 31 of 1999 concerning the Eradication of Corruption Crimes as amended by Law no. 20/2001 in conjunction with Article 55 paragraph (1) of the 1st Criminal Code.

"The aggravating thing is that the defendant's actions do not support the government's program in eradicating corruption. The mitigating thing is that the defendant is polite and uncomplicated, the defendant does a lot for the company he works for and makes the company profit, the defendant has never been convicted," said the judge. .

In their decision, two judges (Teguh Santoso and Agus Salim) stated that RJ Lino's actions together with Ferialdy Norlan who served as Operations and Engineering Director of PT Pelindo II and Weng Yaogen as Chairman of Wuxi Hua Dong Heavy Machinery Science and Technology Group Co. Ltd. (HDHM) China resulted in a total state loss of 1,997,740,23 US dollars.

PT Pelindo II is known to need a container crane. After several auctions, it failed so that in April 2009 PT Pelindo II re-procured container cranes.

However, this time the specifications were changed from a used crane to a new QCC Single Lift or a new QCC Single Lift with a capacity of 40 tons through an auction mechanism for the Port of Palembang, Port of Panjang, and Port of Pontianak.

After the auction, none of the participants met the requirements so that the auction failed, then PT Pelindo II conducted a re-tender and also directly appointed PT Barata Indonesia.

RJ Lino then ordered Ferialdy Noerlan as Director of Operations and Engineering of PT Pelindo II to accompany representatives of Dong Heavy Machinery Science and Technology Group Co. Ltd. (HDHM) which is a crane manufacturer to conduct surveys.

The contract was signed on March 30, 2010 with a value of 17,165,386 US dollars for 11 months of 1 year warranty and for maintenance for 5 years amounting to 1,611,386 US dollars.

Even though the procurement and maintenance did not follow procedures, Pelindo II still paid HDHM of 15,165,150 US dollars for procurement and maintenance of 1,142,842.61 US dollars which resulted in state financial losses of 1,997,740,23 US dollars. A number of intervention actions were carried out RJ Lino, namely: first, ordered and approved two amendments to the Decree (SK) of the Board of Directors Number HK.56/5/10/PI.II-09 dated September 9, 2009 concerning the Basic Provisions and Procedures for the Procurement of Goods and Services in the Pelindo Environment II.

Second, RJ Lino instructed the Head of the Procurement Bureau to "not complicate the administrative and technical evaluation process" of HDHM bids even though HDHM actually did not meet the administrative requirements as stipulated in the Administrative Work Plan and Conditions (RKS).

Third, RJ Lino unilaterally ordered Go for Twinlift and "complete the HDHM appointment process" on the HDHM price offer with a QCC twinlift specification of 50 tons and the witness report of Ferialdy Noerlan as Director of Operations and Engineering which stated that the direct election had been completed.

Fourth, RJ Lino is said to have ordered Ferialdy Noerlan to sign the contract by HDHM (Weng Yaogen) allegedly on March 30, 2010 even though the contract document is dated April 30, 2010.

On the verdict, RJ Lino said he thought about it for 7 days. This was reported by Antara.