KPK Monitors PLN over Alleged Involvement in Rolls-Royce Scandal

TEMPO.CO, Jakarta - Sofyan Basir, president director of state power company PLN, said he heard about reports from British antigraft body Serious Fraud Office (SFO) about the firm's entanglement in Rolls-Royce's bribery scandal.

Sofyan said he is directly coordinating with law enforcers about the matter. 

"We are working with the corruption Eradication Commission. The KPK is monitoring us," he said in Jakarta Wednesday, January 25. 

SFO reported that kickbacks between PLN and Rolls-Royce date back to the 1990s when the Tanjung Batu power plant project in East Kalimantan started. 

The bribery negotiation began in 2006 when Rolls-Royce seven-year maintenance contract in Tanjung Batu was ending. To secure an extension, it is said that the UK manufacturer sought a middleman's help to beat their competitors and encourage PLN officials. 

Rolls-Royce did win the Rp287.9 billion contract, which the SFO said was signed in August 2007. The middleman, dubbed Middleman 7 by the SFO, regularly received paid commissions until 2013. 

Sofyan Basir said that today Rolls-Royce is no longer in charge of Tanjung Batu's maintenance. Their contract ended in 2014.

"We [the new management] entered in 2015 when Rolls-Royce's contract expired. It already ended," he said.

ISTMAN MP