Former PLN chief says he is not responsible for power deal

JAKARTA (JP): The former head of state electricity company PT PLN Djiteng Marsudi told reporters after being questioned by the Attorney General's Office on Thursday that he was not responsible for the controversial power tariff deal with independent power producer (IPP) PT Paiton Energy.

After being questioned for four hours, Djiteng maintained that he only continued the deal which had been made by his predecessor.

"I'm not the one who signed the contract with Paiton but it was the then PLN chief Zuhal ... if you want to know anything, just ask him," Djiteng, who was replaced as PLN president in 1998, told journalists before leaving the prosecutor's office compound.

Zuhal as PLN president signed the controversial deal in 1994.

Paiton is one of the 27 IPPs that had signed power purchase agreements with PLN during the mid-1990s and now operates the 1,230 megawatt power generation plant Paiton I in East Java under a 30-year contract.

PLN however charged the company of having marked up Paiton I's project cost by $1 billion to $2.5 billion, which led to the "unreasonably" high power tariff which was set at 8.5 U.S. cents per kilowatt-hour (kwh).

In 1999 PLN filed a lawsuit against Paiton to annul the contract, on suspicions of corruption, collusion and nepotism.

The government has intervened ordering PLN to renegotiate Paiton's power tariff instead, and promised to investigate PLN's allegations against Paiton.

Paiton Energy is a joint venture between Mitsui & Co., General Electric, Edison Mission Energy and PT Batu Hitam Perkasa which is owned by an associate of former president Soeharto.

At the same time on Thursday, prosecutors questioned former Bank Indonesia governor Soedradjad Djiwandono as a witness in connection with the misuse of the government's liquidity support for 48 commercial banks.

Attorney General's Office spokesman Muljohardjo said Soedradjad was queried over Rp 2.5 trillion in loans disbursed to PT Bank Modern which is owned by businessman Samadikun Hartono.

Deputy Attorney for special crimes Bachtiar Fachri Nasution said that BI executives are suspected of abuse of power in the loan disbursement policy which may have been done without the consent of the central bank's board of directors.(bby)