Golkar Dismisses Deddy Sitorus' Coal Corruption Claims as Baseless
Jakarta, VIVA – Soedeson Tandra, a member of Commission III of the Indonesian House of Representatives from the Golkar Party faction, has called on PDIP politician Deddy Yevri Sitorus to refrain from speaking carelessly regarding the investigation into the alleged corruption in coal governance, which has ensnared former Deputy Attorney General for Special Crimes (Jampidsus) Febrie Adriansyah.
Soedeson assessed that Deddy’s statement demanding an examination of Energy and Mineral Resources (ESDM) Minister Bahlil Lahadalia was a tendentious act not based on accurate data.
“This statement by Mr Deddy Sitorus is, first, tendentious; second, misleading or misinformation; and third, baseless. He commented without sufficient data and without knowing the correct facts of the case,” said Soedeson in Jakarta on Monday, 13 July 2026.
Soedeson explained that the issue of coal supply to PT PLN (Persero) is purely a business-to-business (B2B) relationship between PLN and its suppliers.
According to him, there is no direct relevance requiring the ESDM Minister to be examined in this case.
Soedeson revealed that the “rot” that caused state losses and blackouts relates to fraudulent practices in procurement, not the ministry’s policies.
“The rot lies in under-invoicing, under-quantity and under-pricing. For example, coal that should have a calorific value of 4,200 turns out to be below that. This is a scheme that could potentially harm state finances. Where is the minister’s involvement there?” he asserted.
He also warned Deddy Sitorus to better understand the issue before making public criticism.
“He is a member of the House of Representatives — he shouldn’t just open his mouth and speak,” said Soedeson, who is also Chairman of Golkar in Central Papua.
As is widely known, the National Police Headquarters has named former Jampidsus Febrie Adriansyah (FA) as a suspect in the alleged coal governance corruption case.
The case is suspected to be the main cause of the widespread power outages (blackouts) in several regions of Sumatra.
The alleged bribery in the procurement of coal for coal-fired power plants is estimated to have caused state losses of up to Rp 5 trillion.
In addition to the coal case, Febrie is also entangled in a series of corruption and money laundering cases at two other state-owned companies, namely PT Asabri and PT Krakatau Steel.