AriaWest rejects demand to set up transitional management<\/p>\n
JAKARTA (JP): One of state-owned PT Telkom's joint cooperation
\npartner, PT AriaWest International, has rejected its workers'
\ndemand for establishment of a transitional management team to run
\nits telecom services in West Java and Banten.<\/p>\n
AriaWest vice president director Gatot S. Kahrmadji said here
\non Friday that the establishment of a transitional management
\nteam would breach the original contract with Telkom.<\/p>\n
"The government can decide whatever it likes, but the original
\ncontract should be honored," Gatot told The Jakarta Post and
\nKoran Tempo daily in an interview on Friday.<\/p>\n
He was responding to threats from Telkom's workers in the
\njoint cooperation (KSO) region of West Java and Banten that they
\nwould strike on Monday unless the government decided to set up a
\ntransitional management team to ensure the continuation of
\nservices in the region.<\/p>\n
The drawn out dispute between AriaWest and Telkom has caused
\ntelecommunications services in West Java and Banten to cease,
\nleaving some 90,000 new telephone applications and the billing of
\nhundreds of thousands of customers unprocessed.<\/p>\n
Gatot said that the company would need to study the reasons
\nbehind the transitional management proposition before it could be
\nconsidered.<\/p>\n
"It is highly probable that the situation is being
\npoliticized. There are problems, yes, but have they become so
\ncritical that they require transitional management?" he argued.<\/p>\n
The proposal received wide support from legislators in the
\nHouse of Representatives' Commission IV for infrastructure and
\ntransportation affairs who visited the KSO region last week.<\/p>\n
"If the threat is being made to further undermine the
\ncompany's position, then there is nothing we can do about it,"
\nGatot said.<\/p>\n
He emphasized that AriaWest had not and would not neglect its
\nduty of providing telecommunications services to the public, but
\nthat the company was hampered by a lack of operating funds.<\/p>\n
AriaWest claimed that it had no money to effectively operate
\nthe KSO region as the funds, revenue collected from customers,
\nwas withheld by Telkom in several bank accounts.<\/p>\n
"These are not our accounts ... we have no right to withdraw
\nmoney from them, besides which the bank would not allow us to,"
\nAriaWest director of human resources and corporate development
\nYap Tjay Hing maintained.<\/p>\n
He said that, in the past, the KSO unit had operated with
\nwhatever money Telkom was willing to disburse, but that it had
\nnever been a problem until recently when disputes between the two
\ncompanies came to a head.<\/p>\n
Under the joint cooperation agreement signed at the beginning
\nof the partnership in 1996, KSO partners are entitled to collect
\nrevenues generated from all telephone lines in service within the
\ngeographical KSO unit.<\/p>\n
The partners are also responsible for all expenses directly
\nincurred by the KSO unit in its region.<\/p>\n
However, in the case of AriaWest, the generated revenues were
\nkept in a collection account at several local banks under
\nTelkom's name, Gatot said.<\/p>\n
Telkom has denied allegations that it was withholding funds,
\nsaying that it was AriaWest who had refused to utilize the funds
\ncollected from customers for its operational expenses.<\/p>\n
Telkom vice president for corporate communications Dodi
\nAmarudien said earlier that, from the beginning, Telkom had
\nadvised all partners to close the collection account under
\nTelkom's name and open new ones for their own units.<\/p>\n
AriaWest filed an arbitration suit last month with the
\nInternational Chamber of Commerce (ICC) in Paris, claiming US$1.3
\nbillion in losses and damages arising from Telkom's breaches of
\nthe KSO contract.<\/p>\n
Gatot said the arbitration case would only cover Telkom's
\nbreach of contract and not determine the fate of the KSO contract
\nitself.<\/p>\n
AriaWest maintained its stance to pull out of the partnership,
\nbut has yet to agree with Telkom on the value of the buyout.<\/p>\n
"Telkom rejected our offer (made before the arbitration claim)
\nof a settlement totaling $735 million. Now, with the arbitration
\ncase, we have to reassess the price," Gatot said.<\/p>\n
Telkom, meanwhile, only agreed to pay $280 million based on
\nits valuation of assets in West Java and Banten, Dodi said.(tnt)<\/p>",
"url": "https:\/\/jawawa.id\/newsitem\/ariawest-rejects-demand-to-set-up-transitional-management-1447893297",
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