Oyos Saroso H.N., The Jakarta Post, Bandarlampung | Fri, 04/16/2010 10:26 AM
Lampung residents, whose land was acquired to make way for the Sumatra East Coast Highway project, claimed land compensation remains unresolved and alleged payments have been funneled to others.
Sami’an, a resident of Mataram Baru, East Lampung, said he had not received compensation for his 1-hectare chili farm.
He claims many people outside Lampung received compensation of up to hundreds of millions of rupiah.
“I have not received a single red cent. Hundreds of other people have yet to be compensated by the government as promised,” Sami’an said Thursday.
“What annoyed us was that some people have already been compensated although their land and farms were not affected by the project.”
He claimed hundreds of fictitious names were included in the list of compensation recipients.
“We believe they are fictitious since there are no such names here.”
President Susilo Bambang Yu-dhoyono inaugurated the highway project in early March last year.
The project, which began in 2003 and is set to be part of the Trans-Asia highway network, is funded by the state budget, Asian Development Bank and Japan Bank for International Cooperation (JBIC).
The 285.60-kilometer highway, estimated to cost Rp 500 billion (US$55 million), is expected to become an alternative route to the existing highways.
Lampung Anticorruption Committee (Koak) coordinator Ahmad Yulden Erwin said the project’s land compensation process was riddled with graft. “We conducted an investigation earlier and reported the results to the Lampung Prosecutor’s Office, but we have received no response.”
He said his committee uncovered markups involving compensation team members.
“We could not specify the losses incurred by the state, but if we assume this ran from 2001 to 2010, the sum would be astronomical.
“All compensation should have been completed by 2007, but the central government and provincial and regency administrations continued to allocate funds for compensation. Who is getting compensated and why is there a budget allocation every year?” he said.
Lampung legislative councilor Abdul Hakim previously suggested the President not rush into kicking off the project. “It is not fully completed and the compensation process has not been settled,” he said.
