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The Corruption Eradication Commission will be sending teams to Japan and the United Kingdom to collect information in connection with two separate corruption cases in Indonesia.

Bibit Samad Riyanto, deputy chairman of the commission also known as the KPK, on Thursday said that a team of investigators would be in Japan in May to look into a case linked to budget inflation at the Ministry of Transportation in 2006-07.

"The team has coordinated with our counterparts in Japan to collect further evidence and documents," Bibit said.

On November 30, 2006, Japan donated 60 train units that were no longer used by the Tokyo subway system to Indonesia, with Indonesia agreeing to cover shipping expenses. The KPK had charged Sumino Eko, former director general of railroads, with inflating the shipment cost by as much 570 million yen ($6 million).

Several witnesses have been summoned to testify in the case, including officials from state-owned train operator PT Kereta Api Indonesia and a Japanese national, Hideyoki, who was assigned by the Japanese government to oversee the shipment.

In a separate case, the KPK is also deploying another team to meet with UK's Serious Fraud Office over allegations of bribery inside Indonesia's state oil and gas firm PT Pertamina.

Before the Southwark Crown Court last month, chemical company Innospec pleaded guilty to bribing former senior executives at Pertamina and a former Ministry of Energy official to ensure that its lead-based fuel additive, tetraethyl lead (TEL), was chosen for purchase over unleaded alternatives.

According to court documents, between February 2002 and December 2006, Innospec paid bribes to postpone a government regulation banning the use of TEL, which was issued in 1999. The law did not take effect until 2006.

"We will be exchanging information with the SFO to see what they have gathered so far. The case is still in its initial stages. Right now, our goal is to acquire as much information as we can on the case," Bibit said.

Johan Budi SP, KPK spokesman, said earlier that six people linked to the Innospec case have been banned from traveling abroad. Those prohibited from leaving the country include Rahmat Sudibyo, director general of oil and gas at the Ministry of Energy from 2001-02 and head of upstream oil and gas regulator BPMigas from 2002-04; Suroso Atmomartoyo, Pertamina’s director of refining from 2004-08; and Mistiko Saleh, Pertamina’s vice president from 2004-06.

The immigration office also banned two officials from Soegih Interjaya, president director Willy Sebastian and operational director Muhammad Syakir, as well as a third person identified as Herwanto Wibowo. Herwanto’s connection to the case still remains unclear.

Soegih Interjaya denied that it had bribed oil and gas officials, saying that it "had no ability to influence government officials to prolong the use of leaded fuel in the country.”

Research has shown that even low exposure to TEL may cause lead poisoning. TEL was banned by the United States in 1986 and the European Union withdrew all leaded gasoline as of Jan. 1, 2000.