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ormer state-owned enterprises minister Dahlan Iskan claimed on Wednesday that the procurement of 16 electric vehicles worth up to Rp 32 billion (US$2.39 million) was not his own idea but rather had been agreed upon during a Cabinet meeting under former president Susilo Bambang Yudhoyono.

As a witness in the graft case involving the procurement, Dahlan explained during his questioning at the Attorney General'€™s Office (AGO) that the idea to procure electric cars emanated from several speeches Yudhoyono had made about developing electric vehicles in an effort to help the government resolve its fuel deficiency problems.

Dahlan'€™s lawyer, Yusril Ihza Mahendra, said that the Cabinet decided that the 2013 Asia-Pacific Economic Cooperation (APEC) Summit held in Bali would be the perfect time to show off Indonesia'€™s own electric vehicles.

'€œThe cars were discussed many times during the Cabinet meetings and they decided that using them in the APEC Summit could be a way to promote the electric cars made by Indonesia,'€ Yusril said at the AGO headquarters in Jakarta.

Dahlan was then appointed to prepare the electric vehicles but he soon discovered that there was not enough money from state funds to support such a procurement.

Due to this, Yusril explained, Dahlan and his ministerial staff decided to gather funds to procure the cars through a sponsorship program involving three companies; state lender Bank Rakyat Indonesia (BRI), Jakarta-listed gas distributor PT Perusahaan Gas Negara (PGN) and state-owned oil and gas firm Pertamina.

'€œThat was Pak Dahlan'€™s only role. Whatever came next, what was appointed and what was put in the contract, was done between the ones who made the electric buses and the state-owned enterprises that sponsored the activity,'€ Yusril said.

According to the AGO, the 16 buses were allegedly never used during the APEC Summit and were later donated to state universities.

Previously, junior attorney for special crimes Widyo Pramono said that only two people had been named suspects in the case. These are Dasep Ahmadi, president director of PT Sarimas Ahmadi Pratami, the firm assigned to develop the electric buses and Agus Suherman.

Agus allegedly appointed BRI, PGN and Pertamina to sponsor the project and also appointed PT Sarimas Ahmadi to develop the vehicles.

However, Yusril denied that the companies had been appointed directly and argued that the three companies had volunteered to participate in the procurement process on their own accord.

He added that the case should not even be a criminal one. The procurement funds came from private companies, he argued, and therefore no state losses were accrued.

'€œWe'€™ll see. The Supreme Audit Agency [BPK] can calculate it because [auditing] is not the AGO'€™s profession,'€ he said.

Meanwhile, prosecutor Sardjono Turin explained that Law No.1/2004 on state treasury and Law No.17/2003 on state finances stipulated that state-owned enterprises belonged to the country, which meant that the sponsorships were still part of state funds.

'€œIt'€™s clear what is meant by state funds in those laws. For now that is the legal basis of this case,'€ he said, adding that so far there was no indication that Dahlan was directly involved.

Dahlan is facing several other graft cases including a case involving a power transformer procurement project at the Jakarta Prosecutor'€™s Office in which the former minister is officially a suspect in the case.

He was also scheduled to attend questioning at the East Java Prosecutor'€™s Office related to a case involving asset losses by PT Panca Wira Usaha, a company owned by the East Java administration.