Indonesia probes Wilmar staff, trade ministry in CPO case

INDONESIA has detained suspects including the commissioner of a Wilmar International unit and a senior trade ministry official as part of a corruption case involving palm oil exports.

The commissioner of PT Wilmar Nabati Indonesia with initials MPT and the trade ministry's director-general of foreign trade with initials IWW have been detained after being named suspects in the case along with 2 other people, said Attorney General ST Burhanuddin.

The case involves the approval of export permits that didn't meet requirements and a lack of local palm oil distribution as required by the domestic market obligation (DMO) rule, he added. The DMO policy has since been scrapped.

"We have found strong indication of criminal corrupt action related to the approval of cooking oil exports, which has led to difficulties for the public especially for the poor," said Burhanuddin in a press briefing on Tuesday (Apr 19).

High cooking oil prices have become a key political issue for President Joko Widodo as the cost pushes other food prices higher ahead of the Eid al-Fitr celebration. The government has deployed police surveillance for edible oil distribution, rolled out cash subsidies and raised export levies for palm oil to safeguard local supply.

"The Wilmar group firmly believes that it has been in compliance with all applicable regulations at all material times with respect to such licences and intends to cooperate with such investigations," said the company's spokesperson.

On the trade ministry's website, Indrasari Wisnu Wardhana is shown as the director-general for foreign trade. The ministry commits to upholding the legal process and will cooperate in providing any information needed for the investigation, Trade Minister Muhammad Lutfi said in a statement. BLOOMBERG