Sofyan Basir (JP/Dhoni Setiawan)

The Corruption Eradication Commission (KPK) has charged state electricity firm PLN president director Sofyan Basir for his alleged role in a graft case centering on the construction of a power plant in Riau.

The KPK announced its decision on Sofyan on Tuesday, in a press conference held only hours after the Jakarta Corruption Court sentenced Golkar Party politician and former social affairs minister Idrus Marham to three years in prison for accepting a Rp 2.25 billion (US$159,766) bribe from businessman Johannes Budisutrisno Kotjo, a shareholder in the firm that had been awarded the $900 million project.

Sofyan has been charged with also accepting a bribe from Johannes in return for the right to develop the coal-fired power plant known as PLTU Riau 1.

Johannes, a shareholder of Blackgold Natural Resources Ltd., was sentenced to two years and eight months in jail last year for giving Idrus and another Golkar politician, Eni Maulani Saragih, Rp 4.75 billion in bribes, in a bid to secure the project.

“We have secured enough evidence indicating that [Sofyan] was promised the same size of bribe as those given to [Golkar lawmaker] Eni Maulani Saragih and Idrus Marham,” said KPK commissioner Saut Situmorang.

During Idrus’ trial, it was revealed that Johannes gave the money to Eni, who was sentenced to six years in jail in March, with the consent of Idrus, who at that time served as Golkar’s acting chairman, temporarily replacing former chairman Setya Novanto following his arrest by the KPK.

According to the judge, Idrus used the money to finance Golkar’s extraordinary national congress held to appoint a new party chairman and in which Idrus was among the contenders.

Idrus allegedly asked Johannes to financially help Eni’s husband, Muhammad Al Khadziq, who was running for election as Temanggung regent.

Despite his conviction, the former minister denied any involvement in the case, saying that he did not know anything about the transfer of funds from Johannes. He admitted to meeting with Sofyan but claimed that they did not talk about the power plant project.

“I myself don’t know about the process. I never talked with Sofyan about the PLTU. We just discussed a CSR project for mosques and electricity in border areas, but not about the PLTU,” Idrus told reporters.

The KPK believes Sofyan was responsible for illegally appointing Johannes’ company to work on the PLTU project, saying that the two individuals held several meetings to discuss the project.

“In 2016, even though a presidential regulation on the acceleration of development of electricity infrastructure [...] had yet to be issued, Sofyan allegedly appointed Johannes to the Riau project because the projects in Java had been taken,” Saut said.

Sofyan was not available for comment on Tuesday. Government officials, however, have expressed concerns over his legal status.

“We are concerned [about the reports], but we must respect the legal process. We hope that it won’t disrupt any other electricity projects in the future. Serving the people must be our top priority,” Energy and Mineral Resources Ministry Electricity Director General Rida Mulyanai said.

The State-owned Enterprises Ministry said in a statement it respected the principle of presumption of innocence and it would cooperate with PLN and the KPK in handling the case.

PLTU Riau 1 is one of the power plant projects included in the government’s 35,000-megawatt (MW) electricity-generation program. The power plant is expected to generate 600 MW by 2024.

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