Traces Of Corruption In The Ministry Of Trade From Cooking Oil Exports To Iron Imports

Handover of the position of Minister of Trade from M Lutfhi to Zulkifli Hasan (Photo via Ministry of Trade)

JAKARTA - Muhammad Lutfi, who previously held the position of Minister of Trade, was finally replaced by Chairman of the National Mandate Party (PAN) Zulkifli Hasan after President Joko Widodo (Jokowi) reshuffled his cabinet.

Although it was mentioned that this reshuffle was a form of refreshment, there were a number of chaotic events that occurred in the ministry. Starting from the scarcity of cooking oil to corruption cases that ensnared a number of officials at the Ministry of Trade, everything happened in the era of M. Lutfi.

Then what corruption cases occurred in the ministry?

The Ministry of Trade is in the spotlight at a time when cooking oil is scarce. The reason is that the Attorney General's Office has named five suspects in the alleged corruption in granting export facilities for CPO and its derivative products, including cooking oil, which took place from January 2021 to March this year.

There are five suspects, namely the Director General of Foreign Trade (Dirjen Daglu) of the Ministry of Trade, Indrasari Wisnu Wardhana and four private parties.

The four suspects are Master Parulian Tumanggor as Commissioner of PT Wilmar Nabati Indonesia, Senior Manager of Corporate Affairs of PT Pelita Agung Agrindustri/Permata Hijau Group Stanley MA.

Next was Picare Tagore Sitanggang as General Manager at the General Affairs Section of PT Musim Mas and Founder and Policy/Analyst Advisor to PT Independent Research and Advisodry Indonesia Lin Che Wei.

Lin Che Wei's name is also in the spotlight because this economist is a consultant and occupies certain positions in the ministry. He even became a member of the assistance team at the Coordinating Ministry for Economic Affairs which ended in March 2022.

Not only exports of CPO, the Investigator of the Junior Attorney General for Special Crimes (Jampidsus) of the Attorney General's Office has named one suspect for alleged corruption in the import of iron or steel in 2016-2021.

He is the Head of Sub-Division for Administration for the 2017-2018 Period and the Head of Miscellaneous Industrial Goods for the 2018-2020 Period at the Import Directorate of the Director General of Foreign Trade, Ministry of Trade, Hold Banurea (TB).

In this case, investigators conducted a search at the Ministry of Trade's office in April 2022 and confiscated cash worth Rp. 63,350,000, as well as electronic evidence.

As a result of his actions, the Director of Jampidsus Investigations at the Attorney General's Office, Supardi, said that the Banurea detention was subject to Articles 2 and 3 of the Anti-Corruption Law.

"It's still Article 2, Article 3 remains. In the case of steel imports, there will be indications of bribery or not," he said at the time.

Meanwhile, the Head of the Center for Legal Information (Kapuspenkum) at the Attorney General's Office, Ketut Sumedana, explained that the alleged criminal case took place between 2016 and 2021.

There are six companies that import iron or steel, guide steel, and their derivative products using an explanation letter (sujel) or import agreements without PI and LS issued by the Directorate of Imports of the Ministry of Trade.

The Sujel was issued on the basis of an importer's request with the reason that it was used in the context of procuring construction materials for road and bridge construction projects on the pretext of having a cooperation agreement with four SOEs.

The four SOEs are PT Waskita Karya, PT Wijaya Karya, PT Nindya Karya, and PT Pertamina Gas (Pertagas).

"After clarification, the four SOEs apparently never cooperated in procuring project materials, either in the form of iron or steel, with the six importers," said Ketut.

It is suspected that the six importers imported alloy steel using Sujel on May 26, 2020 with the excuse that it was for the purposes of road and bridge construction projects, whereas in reality the road and bridge projects in question had been completed in 2018.