Former PLN chief says he is not responsible for power deal

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)