Trial Of CPO Case, Expert Witness Called Cooking Oil Has Been Langka Due To Non-Batificate Distribution

The Central Jakarta Corruption Court (Tipikor). (Ist)

JAKARTA - Expert in the Traders of Goreng Oil and Sawit Industry, Wiko Saputra, revealed that the scarcity of cooking oil in retail and traditional markets that had occurred in the country was not due to a shortage of raw materials but due to shipping or distribution factors.

This was conveyed by Wiko when he was an expert witness at the trial of the alleged corruption case of exports of crude palm oil (CPO). He said, the stock of raw materials is actually sufficient to meet domestic needs.

"I found that there is actually no shortage in the aspect of raw materials, meaning that the stock of raw materials is sufficient to fulfill the stock of the cooking oil industry," said Wiko in his testimony at the Jakarta Corruption Court, quoted on Tuesday, December 6.

Instead of questioning production, Wiko even said that there were problems in the distribution of cooking oil. "Because it is not distributed to the market," he said.

Based on this testimony, the legal adviser to the defendant Master Parulian Tumanggor, Patra M Zen, said that Indonesia has never lacked raw materials for making cooking oil. Thus, sending goods abroad should not be a problem.

"It doesn't matter if business actors export. This opinion actually shows that the problem is not in the Wilmar Group as a producer. It is in the distribution route," said Patra.

As for this case, the former Director General of Foreign Trade of the Ministry of Trade, Indra Sari Wisnu Wardhana, was charged with causing state losses of up to IDR 18 trillion. They are suspected of violating the law for licensing for CPO by the Ministry of Trade to issue.

This act was allegedly carried out with the assistance team of the Coordinating Minister for Economic Affairs Weibinanto Halimdjati alias Lin Che Wei; Commissioner of PT Wilmar Nabati Indonesia, Master Parulian Tumanggor; Senior Manager of Corporate Affairs of PT Victorindo Alam Lestari, Stanley Ma; and General Manager (GM) of the General Affairs Section of PT Musim Mas, Pierre Togar Sitanggang. They are charged with enriching themselves, others, and corporations, namely the Wilmar Group, Musim Mas Group, and the Green Permata Group.

Their actions are said to have cost the state finances and the state economy a total of Rp. 18 trillion. Consisting of state finances which were harmed by Rp. 6,047,645,700,000 and the state economy amounted to Rp. 12,312,053,298,925.