Arya Sinulingga Stafsus Erick Thohir: It Is Not From The Public Or NGOs, The Ministry Of BUMN Is The One Who Reports Allegations Of Corruption In Krakatau Steel And PTPN

Special Staff of the Ministry of SOEs, Arya Sinulingga. (Photo: Instagram @arya.m.sinulingga)

JAKARTA - Special Staff to the Minister of SOEs Arya Sinulingga said that almost all reports of allegations of corruption in state-owned companies to the Corruption Eradication Commission (KPK) or other law enforcement agencies were reports from the Ministry of SOEs.

An example is the alleged corruption that has occurred for a long time at PT Krakatau Steel (Persero) Tbk, or KRAS and Holding Perkebunan Nusantara or PTPN III (Persero). Furthermore, Arya said that the report made by the Ministry of SOEs is being legally processed by law enforcement agencies.

"So far, it can be said that many of us have reported reports at SOEs, not from the public or NGOs, am I right? We know, nowadays practically all reports that are legally processed are reports from the SOE ministry. The same applies to the PTPN issue. , what else is being processed," he said in a virtual discussion, Tuesday, October 5.

According to Arya, every report submitted to the Ministry of SOEs regarding unlawful acts in state companies will be directly processed by the Deputy for Law and Legislation of the Ministry of SOEs.

Arya explained that if the report strengthens, the shareholders will immediately process it by forwarding the report to the KPK or the State High Court.

"At this time, we process every report, we check, right now we have a Deputy for Law. The Deputy for Law processes existing reports, those that violate the law, whether corruption and so on. After that, we immediately follow up, we submit it to the prosecutor's office or to the KPK, that's the process," he said.

As is known, SOE Minister Erick Thohir began to reveal one by one a row of state companies that were in jumbo debt, allegedly due to corrupt practices. After conveying about PTPN III's debt of Rp. 43 trillion which was allegedly caused by hidden corruption, Erick also mentioned the debt of Krakatau Steel which was no less fantastic.

Since 2019, the issuer with the stock code KRAS has been restructuring its debt worth US$2.2 billion or equivalent to Rp31 trillion. The past debt is allegedly due to acts of corruption.

Minister of State-Owned Enterprises (BUMN) Erick Thohir said there were indications of hidden corruption within PT Krakatau Steel (Persero) Tbk, or KRAS. The indication is from KRAS's debt which reaches US$ 2 billion or around Rp. 31 trillion.

Furthermore, Erick estimates that the past debt may be corruption. He said that the debt came from Krakatau Steel's investment which reached 850 million dollars. The company previously invested the funds in a blast furnace project.

"Krakatau Steel has a debt of 2 billion US dollars. One of them is an investment of 850 million US dollars, that is not good, there must be indications of corruption," he said during the online discussion 'Bangkit Bareng', Tuesday, September 28.

Erick said that the Ministry of SOEs would also investigate the alleged crime. Erick said law enforcement for wrong businesses must be corrected.

"And we will pursue anyone who causes harm. Because this is back, we don't want to blame, but we fix the wrong business process law enforcement," he said.