Companies question telecom tenders
JAKARTA (JP): Telecommunication companies yesterday questioned the government's openness concerning qualifications to bid for contracts on the installation of two million telephone lines over the coming five years.
"Consortia failing in the pre-qualifications are not well- informed about the reasons they lost their chance," the chairman of the Jakarta chapter of the Indonesian Association of Domestic Telecommunications Firms (Apnatel), I.Z. Audy Tambunan, said yesterday.
He said the government has vowed that the tenders for the installation of two million telephone lines in the coming five years will be held openly.
Minister of Tourism, Post and Telecommunications Joop Ave said earlier that investors should not be worried about bids because their selection will be held by an inter-ministerial team.
The government chose 12 consortia on Sept. 9 to take part in the tenders for the installing of two million telephone lines.
During the current Five Year Development Plan (Repelita VI) period, the government has targeted the construction of five million new telephone lines, of which three million lines will be installed by the state-owned domestic telecommunications company, PT Telekomunikasi Indonesia (Telkom), while the other two million lines will be offered to private companies.
A total of 30 consortia, comprising of both foreign and domestic companies and cooperatives, have applied to install the two million lines, which will be done in various parts of the country other than Jakarta and East Java.
Only five
A spokesman for the Jakarta office of Telkom, D. Sinaga, told The Jakarta Post yesterday that the government will likely choose only five consortia to install the two million lines.
Audy also said yesterday that any winners of the telephone contracts will be required to use domestic products.
The government require the tender documents to be submitted within three months, beginning late September, and the contracts will most likely be signed in the first quarter of next year.
The 12 consortia which have passed the pre-qualification include the consortium of Astratel and France Telecom; Elektrindo Nusantara and Cable & Wireless of Britain; Bukaka and Singapore Telecom; Telekomindo and Nynex of the United States, Krisna Duta and Korea Telecom; Kartika Eka Paksi, Sinar Mas and Bundespost of Germany, Nusa Telekomindo and GTE of the U.S.; Centralindo Pancasakti and Bell Canada; Maharani Teletama, British Columbia Telecom and New Zealand Telecom.
Those failing to pass the pre-qualification include the consortium of Bakrie Electronics and PTT Netherlands; Citra Indobell and Bell Atlantic of the U.S.; Sekar Langgeng, cooperative of BPPT and NTT of Japan; Catur Yasa and DeTe Mobile of Germany.(icn)