T

he Jakarta Prosecutor'€™s Office confirmed on Tuesday that its investigators were currently working on a high-profile graft case surrounding the procurement of electricity transformers worth more than Rp 1.3 trillion (US$100 million) that could implicate former state-owned enterprises minister Dahlan Iskan.

Jakarta Prosecutor'€™s Office spokesman Waluyo said prosecutors were scheduled to question Dahlan, who owns the Jawa Pos media group, on Thursday in his capacity as former president director of state-owned electricity company PLN.

'€œHe is going to be a witness in the case. The procurement of the electricity transformers took place in the 2011-2013 fiscal year,'€ Waluyo told The Jakarta Post on Tuesday.

Waluyo said that the state could well have lost billions of rupiahs in the graft case.

So far, the Jakarta Prosecutor'€™s Office has found that Rp 33 billion was lost as a result of two malfunctioning central electricity transformers procured by PLN, which bought a total of 21 such transformers during the period.

'€œIn total there are 13 broken central electricity transformers,'€ Waluyo said.

Waluyo further said prosecutors were convinced that Dahlan was well informed about the procurement project due to his position as former PLN president director.

'€œThe questioning will focus on his role in the budget for the procurement project,'€ Waluyo said.

The procurement project was part of PLN'€™s plan to distribute the 21 central electricity transformers to a number of power plants across the country including in Java, Bali and Nusa Tenggara provinces.

The Jakarta Prosecutor'€™s Office sent a summons to Dahlan on 16 April.

By Tuesday evening, Dahlan had not returned any call from the Post.

If Dahlan answers the Jakarta Prosecutor'€™s Office summons on Thursday, it will be his first questioning session in the case since the prosecutors named nine suspects in the case.

The nine individuals have been identified only as FY, SA, INS, TF, Y, AYS, YRS, EP and ASH, all of whom are officials of PLN. The nine suspects were recently detained at the Jakarta Prosecutors'€™ Office detention center in Central Jakarta.

The Prosecutors Office had earlier named six other suspects, who are also PLN officials.

The probe into the six suspects has been suspended as they are also currently being investigated in relation to other graft cases being conducted by the Attorney General'€™s Office (AGO).

All 15 suspects have been charged under Article 2 of Law No.31/1999 on corruption, which carries a maximum 20 years'€™ imprisonment for state officials committing malfeasance, in conjunction with Article 55 of the Criminal Code (KUHP) on collective crime.

The use of Article 55 implies that other parties may have played a role in the case but, so far, the Jakarta Prosecutor'€™s Office has said that it has only named the 15 individuals as suspects.