The fate of two marked-up electricity relay stations to be settled next week
Kuntoro may also be faulted in the two projects
Saturday, October 21 2000 - 04:30 AM WIB
The government will decide the fate of marked-up Kediri and Tasikmalaya high voltage electricity relay stations next week, while the Indonesian Corruption Watch has faulted state electricity PT PLN president Kuntoro Mangkusubroto for giving his approval for the disbursement of foreign credit exports for the two projects.
Minister of Energy and Mineral Resources Purnomo Yusgiantoro said on Friday that he had reported the case of marked-up practices at Kediri and Tasikmalaya projects to Coordinating Minister for Economic Affairs Rizal Ramli and the director general of budget at the Ministry of Finance, Anshari Ritonga.
"This will be discussed and decided next week," Puronomo told journalists before attending a meeting at his office.
Earlier in the day, Purnomo summoned Kuntoro to his office to discuss the marked-up projects, that may drag former PLN president Djiteng Marsudi.
Kuntoro refused to comment about Djiteng's involvement in the projects. "I have no comment because Pak Djiteng was my senior."
At a hearing with the House of Representatives' Commission VIII, Kuntoro revealed that the value of Kediri and Tasikmalaya relay station projects were marked up by more than 200 percent. The contracts for both projects were signed in 1998 when Djiteng was president of PLN.
Meanwhile, the chairman of the Indonesian Corruption Watch (ICW), Teten Masduki, faulted Kuntoro for giving his green light for the finance minister to sign agreements of the offshore export credits for the two projects.
"Kuntoro contended that it was urgent to build the transmission lines and relay stations to distribute private electricity," Teten said. "He should not do that. If he knew that there were marked up practices, he should have demanded re-tendering, and not continuing with the projects."
He also questioned the basis of the loan agreement that was denominated in U.S. dollar. He noted that the agreement should have used the rupiah currency. He suspected that by signing the agreement in dollar, it opened possibility for corruption.
He called on the Supreme Audit Agency to investigate the use of all export credits in PLN because he suspected that the loans were corrupted. (*)