'Executives' roam City Hall for rampant corrupt deals

Bambang Nurbianto, The Jakarta Post, Jakarta

When you visit City Hall on Jl. Medan Merdeka Selatan, you will see dozens of "business executives" on the left side of the building.

Instead of meeting high-ranking officials to discuss important business matters, they spend most of their time chatting with friends.

If someone is lucky, their cellular phone will ring. The call usually comes from a "mediator" for the officials at the City Hall or other offices in the city, offering a procurement project.

"I can handle procurement projects, whose value starts at several million rupiah up to those worth billions of rupiah," Wahyudi, not his real name, told The Jakarta Post recently.

Procurement of goods and services is a lucrative business as more than half of the Rp 9.3 trillion city budget in 2002 is allocated for procuring goods and services for the city.

But, it is not easy to enter this business, particularly for new comers, as the officials usually only want to cooperate with people they know well.

"The other requirement is that the people should be 'the real partners' of the officials, and they should be willing to conspire in any project and give a large amount of money to the officials," Wahyudi added.

Wahyudi said the "real partner" of the officials, are those who have direct contact with the project leaders or the other high-ranking officials. Only a few of the dozens of "business executives" who hang around City Hall are real partners of the city administration.

The contractors do not have to make any real effort to win a tender as the winner is appointed through a fake process involving six or seven of them, according to Wahyudi.

Head of the City Administration Procurement and Storage Department Hamdi said that anyone can join the tender provided they are from legal business organizations.

Wahyudi and dozens of other "business executives" hanging around at the City Hall are all directors of a company locally known as CV.

CV, which stands for the Commanditaire Vennootschap, is a Dutch acronym referring to a very simple business organization.

Different from PT (Perseroan Terbatas) -- in English known as Inc. or Ltd., which has very complex organization -- a CV officially has only one director, one commissioner and several employees.

But in the case of Wahyudi and their colleagues, usually, all of the work is only handled by one person.

Hermawan, one of the CV directors, said the documents required to establish a CV, include a membership certificate from a business association, tax payer documents, business permits and a CV certificate issued by a local district court.

"To establish a CV, we need Rp 1.5 million. The money includes bribes for officials so that the process could take place smoothly," said Hermawan.

The executives of the companies who take part in a false tender worth billions of rupiah usually receive between Rp 200,000 and Rp 500,000 each.

Hermawan said that he could receive between Rp 1.5 million and Rp 4 million a month.

"I know that I will not win the project. But I will receive money without working too hard," Hermawan, who claims to be a supplier of electric goods, said.