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Dahlan shifts blame in PLN corruption case
Former state-owned enterprises minister Dahlan Iskan on Tuesday defended himself from graft allegations during a questioning by prosecutors from the Jakarta Prosecutorâs Office
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ormer state-owned enterprises minister Dahlan Iskan on Tuesday defended himself from graft allegations during a questioning by prosecutors from the Jakarta Prosecutor's Office. He attempted to shift the blame to the Energy and Mineral Resources Ministry and the Finance Ministry for approving a multiyear budget for a graft-ridden Rp 1.3
trillion state project in 2011.
Through his lawyer Yusril Ihza Mahendra, Dahlan acknowledged that in his capacity as boss of state electricity firm PLN, he had made a recommendation in August 2011 to then energy and mineral resources minister Darwin Zahedy Saleh to change the status of the budget for the procurement of electricity transformers from single year to multiyear.
The ministry approved Dahlan's budget proposal and sent it to the Finance Ministry, which at that time was led by now Bank Indonesia (BI) governor Agus Martowardoyo, for approval.
Although the proposal PLN submitted was based on false documents, the Finance Ministry, according to prosecutors, approved it and disbursed the funds to PLN in October 2014.
Yusril however defended his client by saying that Dahlan could not be held accountable because it was the finance minister who had agreed to the multiyear status and provided the money after Dahlan left PLN in October 2011.
'The proposal was approved by the Finance Ministry after the energy ministry gave the go-ahead on the multiyear budget. It was PLN that was in charge of providing land for the installation of the electricity transformers. Whether the proposal was approved or not [had nothing to do with Dahlan] because Dahlan left PLN on Oct. 20, 2011,' Yusril told reporters at the Jakarta Prosecutor's Office on Tuesday.
Dahlan was appointed PLN president director in October 2009, leaving when Yudhoyono appointed him minister.
'Many things happened to the project after Pak Dahlan left office,' said Yusril.
The Jakarta Prosecutor's Office has accused Dahlan of abusing his authority with regard to the submission of the multiyear proposal, which was prepared based on false documents.
The documents that PLN submitted at that time stated that PLN had provided land for the power transformers, but the prosecutors have been unable to locate the land in question.
Prosecutor's office spokesperson Waluyo said that the Finance Ministry should have withheld the funds after learning that no plots of land had been prepared for the project.
Waluyo also maintained that the Finance Ministry had disbursed some of the budget funds to PLN when Dahlan was still in charge of the power company.
The Finance Ministry decided to freeze the fund after prosecutors launched an investigation in 2012 into alleged irregularities plaguing the project.
'[Dahlan's successor] Nur Pamudji tried to submit a proposal [requesting the funds] for the 2013 fiscal year, but the request was rejected because it was later found that there was no land provided for the project in the field,' Waluyo told reporters on Tuesday.
'When the Finance Ministry approved the budget, PLN was still led by DI,' Waluyo said referring to Dahlan by his initials.
The Jakarta Prosecutor's Office has found that the state lost Rp 33 billion as a result of two malfunctioning central electricity transformers procured by PLN, and investigators suspect that there were a total of 13 broken central electricity transformers that may have caused more losses to the state.
In addition to the prosecutor's office, the Attorney General's Office (AGO) and the East Java Prosecutor's Office are also investigating Dahlan's alleged role in two further graft cases. The National Police recently said that they would also summons Dahlan as a witness in a separate investigation.
Dahlan is also scheduled to be questioned by the AGO on June 17 as a witness in an alleged corruption case involving the procurement of electric buses, while the East Java office will question him about asset losses incurred by PT Panca Wira Usaha, a company owned by the East Java administration.
