Police Uncover Corruption in Coal Project Financing Involving State-Owned Asset Manager
The Indonesian National Police (Polri) have successfully uncovered a corruption case related to the provision of invoice financing facilities by PT Perusahaan Pengelola Aset (PPA) to PT Bintang Abadi Sampurna (BAS) for a coal procurement project intended for PT PLN Batubara Niaga during the 2019–2020 period. The Head of Operations for the Corruption Eradication Corps (Kortastipidkor), Commissioner Ahmad Yusuf Afandi, stated at a press conference that PT PPA initially provided a financing facility worth Rp50 billion to PT BAS through an invoice financing scheme. However, in practice, the funds disbursed reached approximately Rp67.31 billion across eight disbursements.
Commissioner Yusuf explained that investigators found a series of fundamental irregularities in the disbursement process. Firstly, the due diligence and risk analysis processes were not carried out properly. The recommendation to conduct direct verification with PT PLN Batubara was ignored, despite these being mandatory procedures according to PT PPA’s internal standard operating procedures. Secondly, the authenticity of invoices and supporting documents was not verified, yet they were declared to have met the requirements, forming the basis for the fund disbursements.
Furthermore, supervision of the cash collateral mechanism was neglected, allowing disbursements to proceed even though the guarantee requirements were not fulfilled. In the final stages of disbursement, there was an alleged manipulation of bank statements to make it appear as though the guarantee account balance was still sufficient when, in reality, it was not. The allegedly falsified documents were then used as the basis for subsequent fund disbursements. Commissioner Yusuf asserted that the abuse of authority in the financing process caused significant state financial losses and undermined the investment governance of state-owned enterprises. He emphasised that the case is not merely an administrative error but a series of actions allegedly carried out consciously, in a structured manner, and interconnected, resulting in state funds being disbursed without a legal basis.
Investigators have detained two suspects in the case: IT, an Investment Manager at PT PPA, and FSN, the Head of the Operational Division at PT BAS. A third suspect, FH, who is a Director of PT BAS, is currently serving a prison sentence for a separate case at Salemba Penitentiary. The case files for the suspects have been declared complete, and the detention was carried out on 13 July 2026 as part of the law enforcement process before the second phase of transfer to the Prosecution Service.