Golkar Dismisses Deddy Sitorus' Coal Corruption Claims as Baseless

A member of the House of Representatives’ Commission III from the Golkar Party, Soedeson Tandra, has urged PDIP politician Deddy Yevri Sitorus not to make careless statements regarding the investigation into an alleged coal governance corruption case that has ensnared former Junior Attorney General for Special Crimes, Febrie Adriansyah. Soedeson assessed that Deddy’s request to examine Energy and Mineral Resources Minister Bahlil Lahadalia was tendentious and lacked a basis in accurate data. “This statement by Deddy Sitorus is tendentious, secondly it is misleading or misinformation, thirdly it is baseless. He commented without sufficient data, without knowing the true duduk perkara,” Soedeson said in Jakarta on Monday, 13 July 2026. Soedeson explained that the issue of coal supply for PT PLN (Persero) was purely a business-to-business relationship between PLN and the supplier. According to him, there is no direct relevance that requires the Energy and Mineral Resources Minister to be examined in this case. Soedeson revealed that the ‘rot’ causing state losses and power blackouts was related to fraudulent practices in procurement, not ministerial policy. “The rot is called under-invoicing, under-quantity, under-price. For example, the required calorific value should be 4,200, but what was supplied was below that. This is a game that has the potential to harm state finances. Where is the minister’s involvement there?” he asserted. He also warned Deddy Sitorus to better understand the issue before criticising in public. “He is a member of the DPR, don’t just open your mouth to talk,” said Soedeson, who is also the Chairman of Golkar for Central Papua. As is known, the National Police Headquarters has named former Jampidsus Febrie Adriansyah as a suspect in the alleged coal governance corruption case. This case is suspected to be the main cause of widespread blackouts in several regions of Sumatra. The alleged corruption in coal procurement for the PLTU is estimated to have caused state losses of up to Rp 5 trillion. Apart from the coal case, Febrie is also implicated in a series of corruption and money laundering cases at two other state-owned enterprises, namely PT Asabri and PT Krakatau Steel.