President allows PLN to resume construction of stalled projects

President Joko Widodo (Jokowi) has allowed state-owned electricity firm PT PLN to resume construction of stalled power plant projects as long as the legal issue has been cleared.

Jokowi, however, quickly said that the projects must be properly developed, and that he would closely monitor them. ?They must be developed with the quality that we want,? he said at a ceremony held on Saturday to officially launch the operation of a 4x25 mobile power plant in Mempawah, West Kalimantan Province, as quoted in a statement issued by the Cabinet Secretary.

The president said he doesn?t want to see the plants to be operating with only limited capacity of 30 or 40 percent, reiterating that he would monitor closely the projects. ?So, don?t fool around with things related to technical or details. I will certainly look into it because it involves lots of money worth trillions (of rupiah),? he said.

The president was referring to 34 power plant projects with combined planned capacity of 633.8 MW, planned under the previous government, which had been stalled due to various reasons, and are believed to have cost the state dearly. The Corruption Eradication Commission (KPK) is currently in the process of investigating the possibility of graft practices in the projects.

President of PLN Sofyan Basir said previously that of the total 34 stalled power plant projects, 23 could potentially resume construction, while the 11 others with total capacity of 201.6 MW mostly can?t be continued. PLN is currently waiting for an assessment by the Supreme Audit Agency on the estimated cost to continue the projects.

PLN previously said that the stalled power plant projects were mostly related to the poor capacity of the EPC contractors, and miscalculation.

Editing by Reiner Simanjuntak