PLN under fire for giving big bonus to its board of directors
Wednesday, April 6 2005 - 03:11 AM WIB
State owned electricity company PLN, which is struggling to come out from its financial difficulties, has been under fire for giving a big bonus to its top executives and commissioners, Bisnis Indonesia reported on Wednesday.
The Indonesian Energy and Mineral Society (MEMI) criticized the bonus payment, saying that for an ailing company like PLN, giving a large bonus to its top executives is quite strange and hard to understand.
MEMI urged the office of the state minister of state enterprises to investigate into the strange bonus.
PLN's spokesman Harry Jaya Pahlawan acknowledged that the state electricity company had paid a bonus worth Rp 4.3 billion to the company's 10-member executive board and its commissioners as a reward for their outstanding efforts in improving the financial condition of the company in 2003.
The financial performance of PLN showed a significant improvement in 2003 despite the government's decision to cancel the proposed tariff increase during the year, the spokesman said.
"The bonus payment was made in line with the recommendation of shareholders made during the annual shareholders meeting in June 2004," he said, adding that PLN had also paid a bonus worth Rp 270 billion to its employees. (*)