City ends parking operator's contract
Bambang Nurbianto, The Jakarta Post, Jakarta
The Jakarta Administration terminated on Tuesday its contract with the on and off street parking operator PT Adiwira Sembada because the company failed to improve services or increase its revenue share for the administration.
The termination was made official at a meeting at City Hall which Governor Sutiyoso attended, along with members of an independent research team from University of Indonesia (UI) and officials from the City Parking Management Board (BP Parkir).
Ismeth S. Abidin, a member of the UI team, said that Sutiyoso made his decision based largely on the rating that the UI researchers gave the company -- a paltry 4.8 points -- after a thorough assessment of the company's performance, which included much time given for improvement that never came.
"The governor said that 4.8 points is a red flag. He was disappointed as the company had failed to improve its performance over a six-month period. He then decided not to extend the contract," he said.
Sutiyoso had earlier threatened to cancel the contract on Aug. 26 for the same reason.
The contract between the administration and PT Adiwira was signed in 2001 and the implementation started on Feb. 1, 2002. The off-street parking area they controlled is located in six areas of the National Monument (Monas), Glodok and Pasar Baru in Central Jakarta, Blok M and Mayestik in South Jakarta and Kelapa Gading in North Jakarta.
The contract was extended to May 26, 2003, when they began a special computerized parking system pilot project for on-street parking in five locations using prepaid cards. The system had been planned to be implemented at some 400 locations all over the city.
The prepaid parking card was to be purchased by motorists and provided by Bank Artha Graha, a bank controlled by businessman Tomy Winata. Tomy is currently in a legal scrap with Tempo magazine.
The five pilot project locations were on Jl. Agus Salim in Central Jakarta, Jl. Raden Patah in South Jakarta, Jl. Jatinegara Timur in East Jakarta, Jl. Bulevar Kelapa Gading in North Jakarta and Jl. Gajah Mada in West Jakarta.
Ismeth said that PT Adiwira had failed to give a significant contribution to the city revenues. He did not elaborate but the administration had hoped to receive about Rp 32 billion from parking fees but that figure only reached Rp 14 billion.
He said earlier that the agency had allocated Rp 2.2 billion for commission fees and its investment share in the project. The company also asked for a further Rp 37 billion from the administration to expand its prepaid card system.
Ismeth said that the company's poor service could be seen from the independent team's survey results.
"Nearly all 300 respondents said in the questionnaire that they were disappointed with the company's services," he said, adding that parking attendant's were very slow and could not learn how to operate the new system.
Most customers were also reluctant to buy the prepaid card as it was a more expensive initial outlay.
Ismeth said Sutiyoso then asked the UI researchers to calculate an appropriate compensation package for PT Adiwira as the termination of the contract was an arbitrary decision made by the administration.
BP Parkir chairman Yani Mulyadi said that the company's total investment which had been agreed upon by the administration was Rp 3.8 billion but it had proposed an additional investment of Rp 3.4 billion.
For the time being, the on-street parking system will return to the old system of using tickets.