`Fire the corrupt managers of PPD'

M. Taufiqurrahman, The Jakarta Post, Jakarta

The ministry of transportation should embark on a major overhaul of the state-owned bus operator Djakarta Transportation Company (PPD) to salvage it from total collapse, experts suggested.

A transportation expert from the Bandung Institute of Technology (ITB), Ofyar Y. Tamim said that the restructuring should include a concerted effort to rid itself of corrupt staff members, as woes afflicting the enterprise were, in large part, the result of malfeasance from within the company.

He said that it was logical that the restructuring drive should start with a mass layoff, as the company was already overstaffed.

"Afterwards, the government needs to install professionals to handle the company's management," he said.

The government recently planned to lay off about 2,000 workers as part of its effort to improve the company's profitability. It was also ready to provide the company with 150 new buses to improve its aging fleet.

"A public transportation business has the least likelihood of going bankrupt as the demand for the service is constant. But in fact, it's not only PPD that is failing to earn profits, most of the other city bus companies are also in a poor state," he told The Jakarta Post over the weekend.

He said that profits that should be allocated for new buses and maintenance had, in fact, been misused by the company's management.

Rampant corruption has hampered the company in providing a proper standard of service to the public.

Now that a large part of its fleet is deteriorating, the management of PPD, backed by all of its employees, has urged the government to bail out the ailing company, he said.

Saying that the ministry of transportation was already overburdened in trying to handle all the transportation problems in the country, he said : "An option that should be given consideration is handing over the company to the Jakarta city administration, which does not have its own public transportation company."

Another expert, Alan Narino, said that massive layoffs and buying more buses would only be effective after the corrupt management was removed.

"This is not the first time the government has made plans to lay off workers, it has already been done in the past. But since the corrupt management was left intact, no significant, positive change resulted," he told the Post.

Echoing Ofyar on the need to install professionals to manage the company, he said: "Fire those corrupt personnel that have long misused the company's profits."

Alan, however, played down any plans to privatize PPD.

"I doubt if a company driven by private interests can provide affordable service to the public," he said.

He said that the most viable option for PPD was to change the enterprise into what he called a public-private company.

"This means that this enterprise will cater to the public needs, but the management is run by a private company," he said, adding that given its stature as a private company, the public should have knowledge of its financial soundness.

"PPD is but one more example of how state-owned companies have just become cash cows for the people entrusted to manage them," he said.