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Flawed terminal puts spotlight on incompetent consultants
Questionable project: The renovation of the Rawamangun bus terminal in East Jakarta nears completion
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Questionable project: The renovation of the Rawamangun bus terminal in East Jakarta nears completion. The Jakarta administration plans to file a police report against the projectâs consultants for a defective design that prevents oversized buses from entering the complex.(Warta Kota/Angga Bhagya Nugraha) (Warta Kota/Angga Bhagya Nugraha)
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span class="inline inline-center">Questionable project: The renovation of the Rawamangun bus terminal in East Jakarta nears completion. The Jakarta administration plans to file a police report against the project's consultants for a defective design that prevents oversized buses from entering the complex.(Warta Kota/Angga Bhagya Nugraha)
The Jakarta administration's plan to sue the consultants who worked on the seriously flawed Rawamangun Terminal in East Jakarta has put the spotlight on the all-too-common practice of appointing consultants of questionable competence.
Governor Basuki 'Ahok' Tjahaja Purnama acknowledged that some city administration officials often used project consultants as tools for corruption, resulting in design flaws and project markups.
Last year, the administration allocated Rp 47 billion (US$3.5 million) to renovate the terminal, but a crucial mistake was revealed after construction was completed last December. The terminal's entrance was too difficult for a bus to maneuver through. This causes most bus drivers to park outside the terminal and wait for passengers to board, worsening traffic.
Bus drivers who do enter have to go forward and back several times to make it around the turn. The contractors for the project were Indosakti Pancadipo Paragraha, Tambora Setia Jaya and Abdi Nusa Kreatif.
In order to hire the consultants, the city first held a tender. Ahok said two groups of consultants were hired: one tasked with planning the detailed engineering design (DED) and another tasked with supervising construction. A team of judges determined the winners based on a set of standards.
However, Ahok said the identity of tender winners was sometimes unclear and not credible. In some projects, he said, markups took place while drafting the DED.
'There are many flawed projects that were blamed on consultants. Consultants often mark up project costs. Some of these consultants are likely not credible,' Ahok told reporters at City Hall on Wednesday.
He said the Rawamangun case was not the first incident. He gave an example of Setu Babakan Betawi village in South Jakarta, which used low-quality building materials but cost the city Rp 50 billion. Ahok also said a number of consultants trusted with drafting DEDs for sports halls in five different districts had deliberately marked up construction expenses. The consultants said basic facilities cost Rp 48 billion. Meanwhile, a local architect said it should only cost Rp 28 billion.
'These consultants are hired so related officials can receive kickbacks. The root of this problem is actually corruption. The consultants add things we don't need and mark up construction costs,' said Ahok.
To prevent similar problems from occurring again, Ahok said the city would no longer hire consultants to draft DEDs, and would directly hire contractors for construction. The city would also privatize the development of selected public facilities such as terminals and parks.
'I will also ask working units to increase supervision on construction in their respective units,' Ahok said.
Another recent design failure in Jakarta is the Manggarai Terminal in South Jakarta. The terminal design provides spaces for ATMs, offices, a minimarket and even a library. But none of the spaces are well used. Many pedestrians complain that the stairs are too steep.
In fact, many pedestrian facilities, like overpasses, have stairs that are too steep and arduous. For instance, many find the ramp at Transjakarta's Senayan JCC station in Central Jakarta too steep. Other passengers think the distance from one stair to the next at the Slipi Petamburan station is too great.
Transportation Ministry director general of trains Hermanto Dwiatmoko said that to prevent design flaws and markups, the ministry closely supervises the construction of train stations, from the planning stage to the finishing touches.
'We also hire a planning consultant for DED. However, we supervise and monitor their work every day to make sure that there are no design flaws,' Hermanto said over the phone on Wednesday.
He added that several times the ministry found flaws during construction, but were able to quickly fix the matter due to tight supervision. Hermanto claimed that thus far the ministry had never found significant design flaws that would disturb passengers or railroad travel.
