TheJakartaPost
Please Update your browser
Your browser is out of date, and may not be compatible with our website. A list of the most popular web browsers can be found below.
Just click on the icons to get to the download page.
PLN boss says he intends to resign
Nur Pamudji: (JP/Ricky Yudhistira)Nur Pamudji, president director of state-owned electricity company PLN, has informally offered to resign in protest at what he claimed were unfounded allegations of corruption aimed at the companyâs executives
Change Size
Nur Pamudji: (JP/Ricky Yudhistira) (JP/Ricky Yudhistira)
Nur Pamudji: (JP/Ricky Yudhistira)
Nur Pamudji, president director of state-owned electricity company PLN, has informally offered to resign in protest at what he claimed were unfounded allegations of corruption aimed at the company's executives.
Pamudji confirmed on Friday that three weeks ago he sent a text message to State-Owned Enterprises Minister Dahlan Iskan conveying his intention to resign from PLN, one of the largest state companies in the country.
'Good workers who work professionally should be protected,' he told reporters after a meeting at the Energy and Mineral Resources Ministry on Friday.
According to him, the electricity company needed a leader who could work professionally and have the legal expertise to protect the company's workers from accusations of corruption they had not committed.
Dahlan confirmed he had received the resignation offer from Pamudji and said the PLN boss, who replaced Dahlan as president of the electricity company several years ago, was under pressure due to corruption charges involving his subordinates.
On Thursday last week, the Supreme Court questioned Pamudji as a witness in a corruption case relating to the procurement of 12 turbines worth Rp 23.98 billion (US$1.9 million) for a gas-fired power plant in Belawan, North Sumatra. The procurement process took place between 2007 and 2009.
The court named six PLN officials as suspects in the case. They include PLN North Sumatra director Albert Pangaribuan, PLN planning manager Edward Silitonga, PLN quality control committee chief Ferdinand Ritonga, PLN production manager Fahmi Rizal Lubis and PLN bidding committee chief Robert Manyuazar.
The minister said Pamudji, who received the prestigious 2013 Bung Hatta Anti-Corruption Award (BHACA) for his efforts combating graft in the electricity company, could not accept allegations that the company's executives had marked up the prices of the turbines for the power plant.
Dahlan explained that according to PLN's standard operating procedures, the components of steam power plants had to be routinely replaced, as malfunctioning components could cause mass blackouts.
PLN holds open tenders to select companies that will provide it with replacement components. Dahlan claimed, however, that sometimes PLN needed to adjust the price to meet contractors' demands after signing deals, thereby making the price higher than what was stated in the company's initial proposal.
Separately, State-Owned Enterprises Ministry spokesman Faisal Halimi said although he knew of Pamudji's resignation intention via online media outlets, the ministry had yet to receive Pamudji's official resignation.
'We haven't received any resignation letter [from Pamudji] outlining the reasons for his resignation,' he told The Jakarta Post on Friday in a telephone interview.
According to Faisal, once the ministry received Pamudji's resignation letter, it would scrutinize the reasons behind his decision to determine whether it would officially accept his resignation. (ogi)
