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Indonesia to bring bogus constructors to justice over abandoned power plant projects

Xinhua, November 15, 2016 Adjust font size:

Indonesia seeks accountabilities from bogus power plant constructors over their abandoned projects as they may cost government some 3.76 trillion rupiah (about 281.9 million U.S. Dollars) in losses.

Due to that, government considered to lodge in alleged corruption complaint over the abandoned power plant projects to the anti-graft commission.

Indonesia's Cabinet Secretary Minister Pramono Anung said that 34 power plant projects endorsed by previous governments were apparently deserted at present, led to the state losses as those abandoned projects were partly financed by state budget.

Citing data that the government received from development financing auditor agency of BPKP earlier this minth, Pramono said constructors of those 34 abandoned power projects had received state budget funds amounting a total of 4.94 trillion rupiah (about 369.7 million U.S. Dollars) to finance their projects.

Those abandoned power projects were part of power plant projects with total capacity of 7,000 Mega Watt (MW) carried out by Indonesia's power utility of PLN, endorsed by previous governments in 2006 and 2010, according to data compiled by BPKB.

Twelve of those abandoned power projects were in dire condition as they encountered severe both technical and financial problems to continue, potentially cost the government some 3.76 trillion rupiah (about 281.9 million U.S. Dollars) in losses, according to BPKP.

Pramono said that government considered resuming the remaining 22 power plant projects, but it requires 4.68 trillion rupiah (about 350.4 million U.S. Dollars) to finance the construction and another 7.25 trillion rupiah (about 543 million U.S. Dollars) for finishing works.

"The required funds for those projects' resumption were enormous. It takes official endorsements from the president, vice president and related ministers," Pramono said in a statement.

In his response to BPKP finding, Indonesian President Joko Widodo has issued order to bring this issue to the anti-graft commission of KPK, requesting the agency to undertake investigation into the case.

"We cannot neglect this as it involves trillions of rupiah of government's funds," the president said earlier this month.

To respond the president's request, KPK Deputy Chairman Laode M Sharif said that the commission would scrutinize the KPK finding before conducting an investigation into alleged corruption in the abandoned power plant project case.

"We need to study those ill-conducted projects, why did they fail to meet their completion deadlines," he said.

Indonesia's current administration under President Widodo leadership has set target to build more power plants with total capacity of 35,000 MW, expected to be completed by 2019.

The new power plant projects were aimed at supplying the electricity to more than 40 million families in 12,659 villages across the country who were yet to get served by electricity. Indonesia's current electrification ratio now stands at 85 percent. Enditem