Busway project sparks further controversy

Busway project sparks further controversy

Bambang Nurbianto, The Jakarta Post, Jakarta

The busway project, scheduled to commence operation in six
months, appears to be unclear, as officials of the city
administration issued contradicting statements about the
controversial plan.

Irzal Djamal, who chairs the team responsible for the project,
denied that the city administration had appointed private
companies to procure 60 buses for the bus rapid transit (BRT), or
busway project.

Earlier last week, however, head of the City Transportation
Agency Rustam Effendy said two companies -- Hino and Mercedes --
had been named to procure the buses to serve the 12.9-kilometer
corridor between Blok M, South Jakarta, and Kota, West Jakarta.

The companies were appointed without a tender as the buses had
to be ready before the December deadline, he added.

Rustam defended his administration's move to appoint the two
companies without a public bidding, because it was an emergency.

However, Presidential Decree No. 18/2000 requires all regional
administrations to open a tender for any project worth at least
Rp 50 million in their provinces, except in emergencies.

Rustam said that the New Armada assembling company had also
been appointed, to assemble the 60 buses.

Meanwhile, Irzal said Hino and Mercedes were appointed only to
procure two buses used for a recent trial of the busway project,
and not the entire fleet of 60 buses.

He could not say whether the procurement of the buses would be
passed through a tender mechanism or through the direct
appointment of companies.

"If the procurement is to be held without a tender, they (the
city administration) should explain why. The procedure must
comply with the presidential decree," Irzal told The Jakarta Post
over the weekend.

He could not say whether the time constraint -- the busway
project was initiated in 2001 -- could be categorized as an
emergency under the presidential decree on procuring goods and
services for government institutions.

Irzal insisted that the procuring of the 60 buses should abide
by all stipulations in the decree.

Article 17, Paragraph 4 of the presidential decree stipulates
that there are only four conditions under which regional
administrations are permitted to forego a tender for development
projects.

The conditions are as follows: One, if the value of the
project is less than Rp 50 million; two, if none of the
participants are eligible to bid in a tender; three, if the
project cites emergency/specific conditions approved by a
minister, head of a non-ministerial institution, governor, mayor
or directors of state-owned companies; and four, if there is only
one supplying company.

However, the "emergency condition" was not clearly defined.

Governor Sutiyoso said he could understand why the procurement
of the 60 buses should proceed without a tender.

The Jakarta administration has allocated Rp 50 billion from
the city budget to procure the 60 buses. The figure is part of
the Rp 117 billion earmarked to fund the busway project.

Rustam said more money was needed to finance the busway
project, arguing that Rp 117 billion was inadequate to cover the
security costs and public campaigns for the project.

He refused to mention how much additional money would be
needed, saying that his office was in the process of calculating
it.