Deadlock over price delays ballot printing

Deadlock over price delays ballot printing

Moch. N. Kurniawan, The Jakarta Post, Jakarta

The General Elections Commission (KPU) and the ballot printing
consortium failed on Saturday to reach an agreement on the price
of the contract, threatening preparations for the general
elections, which are now just 49 days away.

The KPU has rescheduled the start of the ballot printing to
Feb. 16, but the tender consortium warned the job might only
commence on Feb. 23, three weeks behind the initial schedule.

The meeting on Saturday was attended by, among others, KPU
members Chusnul Mar'iyah and Mulyana W. Kusumah, tender
consultant Sentot Marzuki and representatives from four members
of the consortium: PT Temprina Media Grafika, the State Printing
Company (PNRI), PT Genta Singgalang Press and PT Pundi Mas Putra
Indojaya.

The talks focused on the price to print ballots for the
election of House of Representatives (DPR) and Regional
Representatives Council (DPD) members.

KPU insisted the price at between Rp 248 (3 US cents) and Rp
266 per ballot, while the consortium demanded between Rp 269 and
Rp 538.

"The price difference between the KPU and our clients is
normal. We must negotiate the price," Sentot said after the
meeting.

He said the KPU should not use the same standards as were set
in the 1999 polls.

A spokesman for the consortium, Untung Sastrowijaya from Pundi
Mas, said the KPU was only counting the cost of printing, and did
not include the price of ink, workers' salaries and the cost of
packaging and security.

M. Mufti Mubarok, chief of marketing and public relations at
Temprina, said the consortium's price quote was reasonable, given
that the 1999 price would be Rp 440 under in today's money.

Mulyana, the chairman of the ballot printing tender committee,
was not available for comment on Sunday.

Mufti said the deadlock might delay the printing of ballots
until Feb. 23.

"We have yet to receive the film for the printing and we also
still have to buy ink, which might arrive in a week, and prepare
the plates. The printing could start on Feb. 23, I guess," he
said.

With the KPU allotting 20 days for the actual printing, that
would mean the ballots would not be ready for distribution until
March 13.

Polling stations across the country must have received all of
their supplies by March 25, 10 days before the polls.

KPU member Valina Singka Subekti has estimated that
distributing the ballots to all of the regental elections
commissions would take two weeks.

The KPU and the printing consortium will meet again on Monday
to try and resolve their impasse.

Separately, the KPU said the results of elections could be
announced nine hours after the ballot counting begins at the
polling stations thanks to the development of an IT
infrastructure.

KPU is also struggling to settle the controversy over the ink
tender. KPU chairman Nazaruddin Sjamsuddin called for a re-tender
after eight companies bidding for the project submitted a price
quotation far exceeding the budget allocated, but the request was
met with opposition from the House of Representatives.

Calls for a re-tender have also surfaced following revelations
that most bidding participants are financially unsound.