PLN executives investigated

PLN executives investigated

TANGERANG (JP): The Tangerang Prosecutor's Office will
immediately launch an investigation in a suspected Rp 6.9 billion
corruption case involving two executives and two staff members of
Tangerang's state-run electricity company (PLN), an official said
on Monday.

"We have just received the dossiers on the case from Tangerang
Police and I have appointed two senior prosecutors to prepare the
indictments against the four suspects," head of Tangerang
Prosecutor's Office Poerwo Soediro said at his office.

Quoting the police dossiers, Poerwo said that Asnawai Sabrawi,
chief of the Tangerang chapter of PLN, Kartiyanto, the office
secretary, and two staff members, Adin. S and Udi Indra, were
accused of violating four articles of the Criminal Code: Article
363 on theft, Article 378 on deception, Article 263 on
counterfeiting and Article 55 on involving others in a crime.

The articles carry a maximum punishment of nine years in
prison.

Asked why the suspects were not charged with Law No. 3/1999 on
anticorruption, which carries a life sentence, prosecutor M.
Adam, who has been appointed to handle the case, said he had only
recently received the police's dossiers.

"If we find later in the investigation that the suspects
violated Law No.3/1999 on corruption, we will change the articles
to charge them," he said.

Police arrested main suspect Asnawai at one of his houses in
Bekasi earlier this month. Police put him under house arrest one
week later.

Meanwhile, Kartiyanto, Adin and Udi have been in police
custody since June 29.

The case was revealed when the Tangerang PLN office conducted
an operation probing the rampant power theft by private companies
and individual consumers last month.

Tangerang Police deputy chief of detectives First Insp.
Kustanto said that Asnawi and Kartiyanto had allegedly
misdirected electric bills from several companies in the
Tangerang area.

He said those companies were requested to pay their electric
bills to Kartiyanto every month but the money was not submitted
to PLN.

According to Kustanto, the two executives pocketed the money
instead and bought houses in Tangerang and Bekasi.

He said they also used some of the money to bribe several
staff members who were in charge of checking the electric meters
at those companies.

"This has been going on since 1990," the police officer said.
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