Indonesia’s Joko Widodo wants thorough probe of palm oil corruption allegations that include trade ministry official

Probe is over alleged breaches of rules for issuing palm oil export permits after a government policy failed to help contain surging domestic cooking oil prices

Indonesian authorities named four suspects including a trade ministry official and palm oil company executives for their role in the corruption case

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Bunches of harvested palm oil fruit are loaded onto a truck in the Penajam area of East Kalimantan, Borneo, Indonesia. The country has ordered a thorough probe into allegations of corruption in handing out palm oil export permits. Photo: Bloomberg

Published: 4:45pm, 20 Apr 2022

Indonesian President Joko Widodo said on Wednesday he wanted a thorough investigation of alleged breaches of rules for issuing palm oil export permits after the government’s policy failed to help contain surging cooking oil prices.

Indonesia’s Attorney General a day earlier launched a corruption probe, naming four suspects including a senior Trade Ministry official and three palm oil executives.

Attorney General Sanitiar Burhanuddin said evidence showed a ministry official had issued export permits to companies that had not met rules to sell part of their palm oil output at home.

“We have conducted an investigation and have found strong indications of the criminal offence of corruption relating to the issuance of export permits for palm oil,” Attorney General Sanitiar Burhanuddin said in a televised statement.

“I ask that this case be thoroughly investigated so we can find out who is playing a game here,” said Jokowi, as the president is widely known, according to a statement issued by the palace.

Indonesia is the world’s top palm oil producer, but after soaring global prices of the edible oil pushed up local cooking oil prices authorities brought in rules from late January to March requiring companies to sell a portion of their planned exports at home.

Bags of cooking oil sit on a shelf at a supermarket in Denpasar, Bali, Indonesia. Indonesia, the world’s largest producer of palm oil, has been hit by a cooking oil shortage causing an increase in the retail price of packaged cooking oil. Photo: EPA-EFE

Jokowi noted that despite the various efforts of the government, including giving subsidies to producers, retail prices of cooking oil had remained stubbornly high.