Things can sometimes get so murky in Indonesia that the ordinary bystander is in a difficult position to decide who are the good guys and who are the bad guys.

Take for instance the case of RJ Lino, the  former president-director of state-owned enterprise Pelindo II. Was he somehow guilty of causing Losses to the State and therefore deserving of being investigated and charged, as his critics claim?

Or has he, as the story below implies, been too straight and good for Indonesia and his efforts to root out corruption have been met by Dark Forces out to seek revenge and frustrate his further efforts as cutting them out of the drinking through?

Put it simply: Has RJ Lino been guilty of corruption and causing state losses or has he been framed by his enemies?

Who out there knows the truth?

The whiff of corruption gets stronger as Indonesian port boss is caught up in ‘illegal’ crane purchase

 

The chief executive of Indonesia’s largest port operator has been fired after corruption allegations, despite a lack of incriminating evidence against him.

Richard Joost (RJ) Lino (pictured above), former president-director of state-owned enterprise Pelindo II, now known as Indonesia Port Corporation (IPC), was dismissed by shareholders in December after being named in a corruption case surrounding the procurement of three quay cranes.

“I believe being fired by shareholders is more respectable than resigning, because I don’t believe I did anything wrong,” Mr Lino told Tempo, a local English-language magazine.

Mr Lino, who was appointed as IPC’s president-director in 2009, is accused of breaking the law by directly awarding a contract for the three quay cranes to Chinese manufacturer Wuxi Huadong Heavy Machinery (HDHM) in 2010.

Indonesia’s Corruption Eradication Commission, or KPK, named Mr Lino as a suspect in the case on 18 December, having previously questioned him in April 2014.

It accused Mr Lino of causing state-losses by not conducting a proper tender process for the cranes, and investigated whether he personally profited from the deal.

The KPK questioned him on 5 February for seven hours, but did not detain him. The interview had been delayed after he suffered a light heart attack the week before.

An industry colleague and close friend of Mr Lino’s told The Loadstar that the accusations were politically motivated, and groundless.

“His enemies were determined to put him away and the KPK interrogated him for seven hours, but they couldn’t find any evidence of corruption. It’s laughable when you know the facts,” he said.

Despite the allegations that Mr Lino directly appointed HDHM, the tender process for the three cranes, destined for ports in Palembang, Pontianak and Lampung, began in 2007, before he joined IPC.

The process failed repeatedly for three years with no contracts awarded. Then, in 2010, Mr Lino says he invited three companies to bid, including HDHM, Shanghai Zhenhua Heavy Industries (ZPMC) and Doosan.

A source close to IPC explained what happened next: “HDHM actually won that process, but one of the other companies had offered twin-lift spreaders rather than single-lift as part of a package…[Contd]