TEMPO.CO, Jakarta - State-Owned Enterprise Minister Erick Thohir shrugged off news saying the commercial director of the state airport operator AP II, Daan Achmad, was a strong candidate to become the next Garuda Indonesia's president director.

"That's not true," Erick told Tempo on Monday, December 23. "We have not obtained names [of candidates] yet."

Previously, a Tempo source in the SEO Ministry revealed that Daan had the potential to replace the previous director, I Gusti Ngurah Askhara Danadiputra or known as Ari Askhara, who was dismissed following the Harley Davidson smuggling case.

Tempo was trying to ask for confirmation about the matter to Daan. However, until this news is written, no response is received yet.

SOE Deputy Minister Kartika Wirjoatmodjo neither denied nor confirmed the issue. When asked for a response, Kartika said his ministry did not want to publish the names to be proposed yet.

"Not yet," said Kartika before a meeting with Coordinating Minister for Maritime Affairs and Investment Luhut Binsar Pandjaitan in Jakarta, Monday, December 23.

The Ministry of Transportation’s Air Transportation Director General, Polana Banguningsih Pramesti, said there had been no candidate's name submitted to the SOE Ministry yet. "Not yet," said Polana via text message to Tempo.

Previously, Erick Thohir admitted he had proposed three names of candidates to occupy the vacant CEO seat of the state airline company.

YOSTINUS | FRANCISCA CHRISTY ROSANA | BISNIS