We never get bored of this: A student holds up a banner Wednesday calling for the city administration to disband its public order agency, in front of City Hall on Jl. Medan Merdeka Selatan in Central Jakarta. Students rallied to protest recent acts of violence by public order officers toward low-income residents (JP/Wendra Ajistyatama)
The Corruption Eradication Commission’s (KPK) investigation into alleged graft in corridors 4 to 7 of the Transjakarta bus will be an entry point to pursue other irregularities, anti-graft watchdog said Wednesday.
Indonesian Corruption Watch (ICW) said corridors 1, 2 and 3 were also prone to markups due to similar procedures applied to corridors 4 to 7.
The ICW had filed a report with the KPK late last month about alleged corruption in the procurement process and operations of corridor 4, 5, 6 and 7 that caused state losses of Rp 63 billion (US$63 million).
ICW’s head of investigations Agus Sunaryanto said the group would support the KPK’s investigation into irregularities in the operation of all Transjakarta corridors.
“We will also evaluate corridors 1, 2 and 3, and collect evidence to find out if there were violations in the procurement process, because the city administration also appointed bus suppliers without putting them through a tender process as they did for corridors 4 to 7,” he said.
“The KPK’s investigation into corridors 4 to 7 will be the commission’s starting point to dig deeper and expand its investigation into [the alleged fraud in] other corridors.”
ICW’s evaluation of corridors 4 to 7 from January 2007 to December last year showed there were violations of the 2003 presidential decree on procurement standards.
The group conducted the evaluation based on data from the Supreme Audit Agency.
The group said the city’s transportation agency and the Transjakarta management body (BLU) had violated the decree because they appointed two consortiums, PT Jakarta Mega Trans and PT Jakarta Trans Metropolitan, rather than putting the project up for tender.
The two consortiums is made up of four similar companies: PT Mayasari Bakti, Perum PPD, PT Steady Safe and PT Pahala Kencana. The companies were given the project because they ran bus routes that were affected by Transjakarta corridors 4 to 7.
ICW said that not only had the direct appointment violated the procurement procedures, but also that the transportation agency and BLU should have held a bidding process.
After appointing the two consortiums in October 2006, the administration in December 2006 issued a gubernatorial regulation on the appointment of bus operators.
The anti-graft body also found violations on the rates charged. The administration set the rate at Rp 12,885 per kilometer.
“In fact, the per-kilometer rate could be lower if it was set through a bid. It could be between Rp 9,371 and Rp 9,443, and save 40 percent of the city’s budget,” Agus said.
According to Agus, the state lost Rp 33 billion in 2007 and Rp 30 billion in last year, because of the higher rates.
The transportation agency and the BLU had earlier responded to the graft allegation, insisting that all procedures have been conducted fairly.
“There was no corruption in the procurement process for corridors 4 to 7. We have conducted a fair, prudent and transparent process. We are ready for the KPK’s questions,” said the transportation agency deputy head Riza Hasyim, as quoted by beritajakarta.com, after ICW submitted the report to the KPK last month.
