Gontha urged the State-Owned Enterprises (SOEs) Ministry to dismantle past cases of alleged corruption in the company related to aircraft leasing.

He cited issues related to powerful groups in the company and the price difference between Boeing 777-300ER aircraft rental and CRJ1000 aircraft purchase.

Ghonta spoke of having reported the problems to several institutions ranging from the director-general of the Ministry of Law and Human Rights to the chairman of the Corruption Eradication Commission (KPK).

State-Owned Enterprises (SOEs) Minister Erick Thohir then filed a report on an alleged graft case in the financially beleaguered state-owned airline PT Garuda Indonesia (Persero) to the Attorney General's Office.

The report outlines the government's plan to restructure Garuda Indonesia as well as provides evidence regarding the procurement of ATR 72-600 aircraft.

We provide evidence from the investigative audit, so it is not an accusation, he asserted.

For the past two years, Garuda Indonesia had faced a financial storm due to past mismanagement that caused the company's debt to swell to more than Rp140 trillion, Thohir remarked.

Meanwhile, Thohir noted that the Garuda Indonesia case was not just about an aircraft but pertaining to an ecosystem.

He encouraged the Garuda Indonesia case to be resolved, as it was impossible to buy or rent an aircraft without a business plan and without calculating flight routes.

In the absence of such a calculation, Garuda ultimately paid the aircraft rental fee of up to 28 percent to the lessor as compared to only eight percent to other airlines' aircraft lessors.

"Hence, there is a system and there is a solution, so that in the future, Garuda will not repeat similar cases again since due to no management, the loss will also affect the people, in the form of expensive tickets," he pointed out.

In addition, the SOEs Ministry has taken steps to restructure and salvage the state-owned airline.

The ministry will focus on transforming the airline to make it more accountable, professional, and transparent.

More than 470 creditors have submitted claims of up to US$13.8 billion, or equivalent to Rp198 trillion, to Garuda Indonesia as of January 5, 2022, as part of a debt recast.

The figure has been cited by Garuda Indonesia's Suspension Debt Payment Obligation (PKPU) team, Thohir remarked.

After the verification is completed, the PKPU team will take a decision on January 19, 2022, regarding the amount considered to be valid and can be included in the restructuring process, he remarked.

The Garuda management had earlier submitted a proposal to reduce its liabilities by more than 60 percent, from US$9.8 billion to US$3.7 billion through restructuring.

The proposal aimed to help the company survive amid the COVID-19 pandemic that has protracted for two years.

Save Garuda

Commission VI of the Indonesian House of Representatives formed a working committee to rescue national carrier Garuda Indonesia.

"In principle, the Committee for Rescuing Garuda is a follow-up to the three work meetings undertaken by Commission VI with the SOEs minister, deputy ministers, and the Garuda Indonesia Board of Directors," Head of the Committee for Rescuing Garuda Martin Manurung stated.