Councilors want PDAM deals renewed<\/p>\n
JAKARTA (JP): The City Council strongly supports the
\ncooperative agreements on water management between city-owned
\nwater company PDAM Jaya and its two foreign partners, but urges
\nthe administration to review the deals, its speaker said.<\/p>\n
Speaking in a monthly meeting with the media on Tuesday, City
\nCouncil Speaker Edy Waluyo said the city authority should arrange
\n\"renegotiation talks\" for the new agreements immediately.<\/p>\n
The new deals should then assure that none of the parties
\ninvolved, including the general public, city administration, PDAM
\nJaya and its foreign partners, would suffer any financial losses.<\/p>\n
\"We (members of the City Council) have agreed that the
\nauthority should continue the cooperation deals.<\/p>\n
\"But we also appeal for immediate renegotiation talks that
\nwould change the substance of the (existing) agreements to assure
\nthat all parties involved would lose nothing,\" he said.<\/p>\n
Edy suggested that a meeting for the review of the existing
\ncooperation deals should be held shortly after the Nov. 10
\nthrough Nov. 13 special session of the People's Consultative
\nAssembly (MPR) here.<\/p>\n
\"We have to hold new negotiations as soon as possible.
\nOtherwise, the city administration would suffer great losses,\" he
\nsaid, adding that the council would help supervise the meeting.<\/p>\n
It appears that the council's proposal was in response to a
\nrequest made by lawyers of the Jakarta chapter of the Indonesian
\nWater Contractors Association (Akaindo), who visited the council
\non Monday and asked the councilors to open a special meeting
\nbetween executives of the two joint ventures and the city
\nauthority to review the cooperation deals.<\/p>\n
The lawyers claim the deals between PDAM Jaya and its foreign
\npartners are illegal agreements because they were made in an
\nunfair bidding process.<\/p>\n
The 40 lawyers also claimed the two foreign parties, French
\ncompany Suez Lyonnaise des Eaux and British company Thames Water
\nOverseas Ltd., had invested no money in the cooperation.<\/p>\n
The foreign firms instead shared the money collected from the
\ncustomers' water bills, thereby inflicting the public with a
\ntotal financial loss of Rp 341.42 billion, they said.<\/p>\n
The lawyers threatened to sue the foreign companies under
\nIndonesia's Criminal Code for corruption if their proposed
\nrenegotiation talks failed.<\/p>\n
The lawyers belong to the same team of lawyers that filed a
\nlawsuit in September at the Central Jakarta district court
\nagainst Governor Sutiyoso, PDAM Jaya and nine other parties,
\nincluding the two joint ventures, over the cooperative agreements
\non water management in the capital.<\/p>\n
The cooperative agreement between PDAM Jaya and Suez Lyonnaise
\nto form Pam Lyonnaise Jaya (Palyja) and PDAM Jaya and Thames
\nWater to set up Thames Pam Jaya (TPJ) was the result of
\none-and-a-half years of negotiation under the coordination of
\nofficials from the Indonesian ministries of home affairs, public
\nworks, finance and the National Development Planning Board.<\/p>\n
Both companies are responsible for managing, operating,
\nmaintaining and improving the water supply system in the capital,
\nwith Palyja controlling the western part of the city and TPJ the
\nnorth.<\/p>\n
When contacted last night, executives of both Palyja and TPJ
\nwarmly welcomed the council's idea for the talks.<\/p>\n
\"Actually, we're still negotiating with the city
\nadministration to get an independent group of advisors sponsored
\nby the World Bank in a bid to get a very fair and transparent
\ncontract,\" Bernard Lafrogne of Palyja said.<\/p>\n
Nani Sariati, sales and marketing manager of TPJ, commented:
\n\"We're very grateful for the idea to arrange a meeting,
\nespecially if Akaindo members and their lawyers also attend it.\"<\/p>\n
Both executives, however, strongly denied the claims by the
\nAkaindo lawyers.<\/p>\n
\"It's absolutely incorrect and groundless information. They
\nare irresponsible people,\" Nani replied, adding that TPJ had
\nspent Rp 163.6 billion over the last seven months, with the
\nrevenue for the same period being Rp 44.4 billion.<\/p>\n
According to Bernard, Palyja has invested, for example, some
\nRp 175 billion for its project in Kebon Jeruk. \"It's really our
\nmoney.\"<\/p>\n
He said that Akaindo's accusation was therefore \"a lie\".<\/p>\n
During the media briefing, councilor Eddy also pointed out
\nthat the council had held a series of working session with PDAM
\nJaya and its foreign partners and made an on-site inspection
\nlast month to learn details of the water management cooperation.<\/p>\n
Based on their findings, the council then issued a
\nrecommendation to Governor Sutiyoso about the importance of
\narranging renegotiation talks.<\/p>\n
In the letter dated Sept. 16, the council also suggested the
\ngovernor disallow the two joint ventures of PDAM Jaya and its
\nforeign partners to collect money unless they could show tangible
\naccomplishments that benefited the public.<\/p>\n
The foreign companies, the council said, should not use the
\nmoney they collect from the scheme as capital in the projects.
\n(ivy\/bsr)<\/p>",
"url": "https:\/\/jawawa.id\/newsitem\/councilors-want-pdam-deals-renewed-1447893297",
"image": ""
},
"sponsor": "Okusi Associates",
"sponsor_url": "https:\/\/okusiassociates.com"
}