Jakarta develops online tender system

Bambang Nurbianto, The Jakarta Post, Jakarta

To eliminate opportunities for corruption in the bidding process for projects, the Jakarta administration will develop a new system of procurement through its website www.dki.go.id.

The e-Procurement system, according to city spokesman Tjatur Laswanto, is set out in the newly signed Gubernatorial Instruction No. 78/2005, which will affect all agencies.

"The development of e-Procurement is a response to criticism over the lack of transparency in our tender process. The new system will be gradually introduced starting next year," Tjatur said at City Hall.

"We believe that, with the system, all tenders can be carried out through quick, accurate, transparent, efficient, fair and auditable processes," Tjatur added.

But Tjatur did not say how long it would be before the system was in full swing, nor which bidding opportunities would open up next year.

He declined to reveal the cost of developing the system.

The city administration has been criticized over corruption in the bidding process, with watchdogs estimating over 30 percent of this year's budget was embezzled by officials.

Several suppliers for the city administration's projects have said the tender process is mere administrative work as only one company has any real chance of winning.

According to Tjatur, e-Procurement was developed to prevent direct contact between administration officials and businesspeople.

He said a team of representatives of relevant agencies, who were assisted by professional consultants, had come up with the system.

Tjatur said team members would carry out comparative studies in cities that had already applied e-Procurement, such as Denpasar, Surabaya, New Delhi and Kuala Lumpur.