'Executives' roam City Hall for rampant corrupt deals

'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.