T

he Attorney General'€™s Office (AGO) is continuing its investigation into the Transjakarta bus-procurement case involving former Transportation Agency head Udar Pristono, with searches on Thursday evening of the offices of the agency and the companies that won the procurement tender.

Udar was arrested in connection with the procurement of faulty Transjakarta buses worth Rp 1 trillion (US$88 million).

The money was allocated to finance the acquisition of 644 Trans-jakarta buses from China, but so far only 125 buses have arrived with Rp 400 billion of the total budget already disbursed.

Of the 125 buses that have arrived in Jakarta, 15 have been found to have rusty, defective and damaged parts.

AGO spokesman Tony Spontana said the AGO raided the Transportation Agency and the firms that won the tender and confiscated documents relating to the procurement.

The firms that won the tender include PT Korindo Motor, PT Ifani Dewi, PT Saptaguna Dayaprima, PT Putriasi Utamasari and PT Mobilindo Armada Cemerlang.

'€œWe confiscated dozens of documents related to the procurement. For now, we have not yet named any new suspects,'€ Tony told The Jakarta Post on Friday.

He said AGO detectives were currently examining the documents in order to ascertain whether any other people were involved in the case.

'€œWe must examine the documents first. Maybe our findings will lead us to other suspects,'€ Tony said.

Aside from Udar, the AGO has thus far named nine other suspects, including Prawoto, the director of transportation systems and the technology center at the Agency for the Assessment and Application of Technology (BPPT). The AGO has also questioned at least 60 witnesses and experts.

In response to Udar'€™s arrest, Jakarta Governor Joko '€œJokowi'€ Widodo said he hoped the planned massive overhaul of Jakarta'€™s civil service could help prevent corruption within the city administration.

The city administration is set to strip thousands of echelon II, III and IV officials of their positions and conduct tests for civil servants to replace them.

Among other posts, echelon II positions include agency heads and mayors; echelon III positions include agency unit heads, municipal agency heads, technical-management unit heads and district heads; and echelon IV positions include subdistrict heads, sub-unit heads and community health center heads.

The city administration will also form an assessment team. The team will determine who gets promoted, demoted, moved or fired.

Jokowi further said that the system must also be changed in order to prevent corruption, such as by implementing e-budgeting and the e-catalog process for procurements citywide.

'€œChanging the Jakarta administration for the better will take some time. We can'€™t do this in one or two days,'€ Jokowi told reporters at the City Hall in Central Jakarta on Friday.

Since the case was revealed earlier this year, the city administration has changed its procurement system.

The administration has formed the Goods and Services Procurement Agency in order to ease procurement and prevent corruption.

Moreover, PT Transportasi Jakarta (Transjakarta) is now responsible for procuring Transjakarta buses.

Previously, Jakarta Deputy Governor Basuki '€œAhok'€ Tjahaja Purnama said the city would not provide any legal assistance for Udar.

'€œI don'€™t think the regulations allow us to provide legal assistance for civil servants involved in criminal cases. Besides, he already has his own lawyers,'€ Ahok said.