City invites an open billboard tender
City invites an open billboard tender
JAKARTA (JP): The city administration is inviting companies
and advertising agencies to join an open tender for 163 spots for
billboards in the city.
City spokesman Muhayat said here on Thursday that the new
policy was taken after acknowledging that in the past the empty
spots for billboards had been "awarded" to certain parties.
Muhayat did not reveal when the new policy was exactly
introduced, but said that the city administration in the past set
certain prices for certain bidders through unfair procedures.
In the past certain advertising agencies prevented other
parties from joining the tender through collusion with certain
officials.
Another official, who wished to remain anonymous, said that a
company once complained after being prohibited from joining the
tender by members of an illegal billboard syndicate.
"That's why only certain advertising agencies joined the
tenders in the past," the official said.
According to Muhayat, an advertising agency could in the past
hire a strategic billboard location for a certain period of time
at a price lower than that set by the administration by bribing
the officials in charge.
A company might give Rp 100 million or Rp 200 million to the
official for a strategic spot, and the official would make a
fictitious report to his superiors, saying that the spot was
hired at a price lower than the administration asked for.
The advertising agency then 'sold' the spot to its client at
higher price.
"In this way an official could take home a BMW sedan only by
"selling" one spot, while the administration suffered more
financial losses as the revenue target was never reached,"
Muhayat.
Lately, Muhayat said, the administration set higher prices for
the spots as it wanted to increase revenue from the business.
"No single advertising agency was willing to buy the spots at
the higher price," he said, without revealing the prices.
He said the prices of the billboard spots varied depending on
the measurement of the space and the value of land in the area.
During a meeting with the City Council on Thursday, the
Jakarta Chamber of Commerce (Kadin Jaya) and the Indonesian
Outdoor Advertising Agencies Association (AMLI) questioned the
city for not offering a tender for the 163 billboard spots
sooner.
In a related development councillor Mardjuan Bakri confirmed
the unfair practices in the billboard spot tender.
He cited an example of the huge billboard standing on Jl.
Tanjung Karang, Central Jakarta. "The spot has always been
awarded to a certain firm without a tender."
Separately, chief of the City Assets Office Hussein Djawas,
who is responsible for billboard spot bidding, denied the
allegation.
"The administration offered the space at Rp 1.2 billion a
year, and no advertising agency has as yet paid for that space."
(jun)