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ity-owned lender Bank DKI is fighting back against PT Megah Prima Mandiri (MPM), which had previously filed a lawsuit against the bank in March over the termination of a contract on a Transjakarta-related project.

'Our file has reached the court. We've had a second hearing,' Bank DKI spokesman Herry Djufraini told The Jakarta Post on Thursday.

MPM filed a lawsuit against Bank DKI with the Central Jakarta District Court following the latter's decision to 'unilaterally' terminate their contract relating to the establishment of a Transjakarta e-ticketing payment system and demanded that the latter pay Rp 514 billion (US$52.9 million) in compensation.

'The unilateral cancellation has caused my client, MPM, to have lost Rp 14 billion for the e-ticketing facilities that were installed in corridors IV and VI by September 2012 and Rp 500 billion in immaterial damages,' Ronny Janis, a lawyer representing MPM, recently said, referring to the Pulo Gadung, East Jakarta-Dukuh Atas, Central Jakarta route and the Dukuh Atas-Ragunan, South Jakarta route respectively.

Herry said the bank did not unilaterally terminate the contract. 'If Bank DKI had cancelled the contract before Oct. 27, 2012 ' the deadline for the company to finish the project at all 11 Transjakarta corridors ' then it would have been unilateral,' he said. 'But the fact is that we did so after the deadline,' he said, adding MPM must bear all the consequences that followed as stipulated in the contract.

He said the bank finally terminated the contract in February after giving two periods of extension in December 2012 and January 2013 ' at MPM's request.

Bank DKI and MPM signed the contract on June 6, 2012. The contract required MPM to finish the project at all 11 Transjakarta corridors on Oct. 27, 2012, and to pay Bank DKI Rp 7.1 billion in penalty should the contractor fail to meet the target.

Herry said Bank DKI had yet to receive the compensation money from MPM following the latter's failure.

Despite the report MPM had filed against the bank, Ronny admitted that his client, which claimed to be an IT infrastructure solutions provider, had failed to meet the deadline after failing to find investors willing to invest in the project.

He said investors were reluctant to come onboard because the bank refused to apply flexibility in the electronic ticket price in the future, although it had promised to provide that before the signing of the contract.

The project was rolled out after Transjakarta management body (BLU) appointed Bank DKI in July 2011 to manage the procurement of the Transjakarta e-ticketing system.

According to BLU chief Muhammad Akbar, the appointment was given to Bank DKI because it already had a prepaid electronic travel ticketing system, JakCard. A smart card will later be integrated with the Transjakarta e-ticketing system to make commuter travel easier.

Akbar said BLU, as the first party that had appointed Bank DKI to establish the system, had nothing to do with what was happening between Bank DKI and MPM.

'To BLU, the dispute means that Bank DKI has failed to install the e-ticketing system for the 11 corridors as agreed,' he said, adding BLU immediately cancelled its contract with Bank DKI in January after learning of 'Bank DKI's failure'.

As a consequence, BLU appointed PT Gamatechno Indonesia, which manages the e-ticketing systems of bus rapid transit operators Trans Jogja of Yogyakarta and Trans Batik Solo of Central Java, in the same month to finish the project in May.

Akbar said the e-ticketing system operated by Gamatechno was now already integrated with e-payment systems of five big banks, namely Bank DKI and private lender Bank Central Asia, as well as state banks Bank Rakyat Indonesia, Bank Mandiri and Bank Negara Indonesia. (hrl)