T

he report into the shambolic procurement of training and competition equipment prior to the recently concluded Asian Games is likely to add to national sports woes as Indonesia comes to terms with its disappointing results at the games in Incheon, South Korea.

Indonesia'€™s athletes brought home four gold, five silver and 11 bronze medals from the Sept. 19-Oct. 4 multi-sports event, which was well below its nine-gold target.

The procurement problems were blamed on PT. Cipta Mitraya, which won the procurement tender but failed to deliver; leaving several sports organizations to fend for themselves with vague promises of reimbursement later.

The case has exposed the government'€™s inability to prepare adequately for the event.

National weightlifting manager Alamsyah Wijaya lambasted the ministry for what he said were repeated cases of delays in the procurement of sports equipment.

'€œThe games have a fixed schedule so how come it [the ministry] keeps repeating the same mistakes over and over again? They are always missing the schedules [for procurement],'€ he said, adding that the problems lay either with the tender process or the officials in charge.

'€œNext time just let the sports organizations handle the procurement, since they know best what their athletes need and the suppliers of their respective equipment,'€ Alamsyah said.

PT. Cipta Mitraya was named the tender winner for the procurement of 1,736 items of sports equipment for Indonesian athletes participating in Incheon. Swimming, weightlifting and bowling were among those expecting government assistance in providing them with training and equipment for the games.

However, the company could not meet the deadline to provide the equipment. It instead wrote a letter in late September, a few days after the opening ceremony of the Asian Games, stating that it had backed out of the procurement process.

Sports Minister Roy Suryo has appointed his secretary Alfitra Salamm and special staff member for sport Bambang RE to look further into the case.

'€œI'€™m still investigating the case. We can probably finish [the investigation] by tomorrow afternoon,'€ Alfitra said in a text message to The Jakarta Post on Thursday.

According to deputy minister in charge of harmonization and partnership affairs Gatot Sulistiantoro Dewabroto, they have also sent a letter to the Government Procurement Regulatory Body (LKPP) to put the company on a blacklist so that it cannot participate in any tender process in the future.

'€œThey have previously won several tenders but mostly related to construction projects,'€ he said by phone.

PT. Cipta Mitraya won the tender after submitting a bid of Rp 18.2 billion (US$1.47 million), some Rp 6 billion lower than the bid submitted by its nearest rivals.

The company was reported to have told the sports organizations to buy their own equipment with the promise that their expenses would be reimbursed later.

However according to Gatot, they have yet to figure out who exactly was the person behind the reimbursement promise.

'€œAn internal investigation is ongoing to reveal who promised to reimburse their expenses. Should it be someone from the ministry, we will take legal action against them,'€ he said.

He added that if it turned out to be someone from the company, then the ministry would examine the contract to determine whether force majeure (unavoidable obstacle) applied and act accordingly.

Albert C. Susanto, national swimming coach said that someone he knew by the name of Trica, who he believed to be a representative of the company, had promised to reimburse any expenses incurred providing his swimmers with the equipment they required. '€œI have not been able to contact him [Trica] since then'€ Albert said.

'€œWe had to spend around Rp 200 million to buy the sports equipment such as lactate-testing equipment, stretch cords and many other things that they needed for training and competing at the Asian Games,'€
he said.

Indonesian swimmers returned home from the games empty-handed.