Two Garuda Indonesia stewardesses posture for a photo in front of an ATR 72-600 airplane at Sultan Mahmud Badaruddin II Airport in Palembang, South Sumatra. (Antara Picture)
BY: THE JAKARTA GLOBE
JANUARY 19, 2022
Jakarta. Chief Law Officer Sanitiar Burhanuddin revealed on Wednesday his office has released a criminal investigation into alleged corruption in state-owned airline Garuda Indonesia concerning aircraft lease.
Burhanuddin stated the supposed deceptive procurement has actually caused a loss of a minimum of Rp 3.6 trillion ($250 million) to the state.
” We begin the criminal investigation today. There are a number of lease contracts that will be examined completely, worrying the lease of ATR, Bombardier, Airplane, and Boeing airplane,” the attorney general stated in a virtual press conference in Jakarta.
The preliminary stage of the investigation will cover the lease of ATR 72-600 and Bombardier aircrafts, according to Febrie Adriansyah, the deputy chief law officer for unique criminal offenses.
” There is a quite substantial loss in this case. For instance, in the airplane lease alone, [Garuda] lost an estimate Rp 3.6 trillion,” Febrie stated.
He stated the alleged corruption happened during the management of Emirsyah Satar, who is now serving eight years’ imprisonment for taking countless dollars in allurement cash and high-end products from people and business who won procurement contracts from Garuda.
Emirsyah became the president director of Garuda in 2005 and resigned in 2014 amidst mounting graft allegations.
He was called corruption suspect by the Corruption Eradication Commission (KPK) in January 2017 and convicted in May 2020 after a drawn-out investigation.
Febrie stated the Attorney general of the United States’s Workplace (AGO) will collaborate with the KPK who first released a graft investigation against the airline.
The AGO’s announcement came a week after State-Owned Enterprises Minister Erick Thohir reported supposed fraud in the Garuda’s lease of ATR planes.
The criminal probe comes as a major blow to Garuda already on the verge of insolvency.
According to the September 2021 monetary reports, Garuda has negative equity of $2.8 billion, and the problem increases by $100-150 million each month.
The business is currently renegotiating rates with creditors and aircraft lessors to restructure its financial obligations and reduce financial obligation loads.
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