Contractors rail against collusion

JAKARTA (JP): About 80 representatives of contractors grouped in the Jakarta chapter of the Indonesian Builders Association staged a peaceful demonstration at City Hall yesterday to protest alleged collusion between the governor's office and the association's executives.

One of the protesters, Beresman Siagian, said they wanted the revocation of Gubernatorial Decree No. 367, issued in 1994, which required all contractors to become members of the association and pay membership fees before participating in tenders of city projects.

It was proof of collusion, he said.

"We paid a lot of money as members to the association, but still many of the projects were awarded only to the association's executives."

He said the contractors were required to pay a yearly membership fee of between Rp 500,000 and Rp 4 million for each company they had.

Many contractors had more than three different companies to enable them to participate in tenders on various projects, said Siagian. (cst)