KPPU to investigate JORR tender

The Jakarta Post, Jakarta

The Business Competition Supervisory Commission (KPPU) will set up a team to investigate the retendering process of the Rp 4 trillion (US$384 million) Jakarta Outer Ring Road (JORR) toll road project if there's evidence of any violation of the antimonopoly law, according to commission chairman Mohammad Iqbal.

Iqbal told The Jakarta Post on Monday that the commission had been monitoring and collecting information about the long delayed tendering process.

"We will form a team to investigate the tendering process if it violates Antimonopoly Law No. 5/1999," Iqbal said.

He made the comments amid reports that the Financial Sector Policy Committee (FSPC) had given special treatment to a Malaysian consortium, one of the bidders.

FSPC, which groups together senior economic ministers, has granted three options to the Malaysian consortium as a preferred bidder. The FSPC is in charge of handling major sales of assets worth more than Rp 1 trillion implemented by the Indonesian Bank Restructuring Agency (IBRA).

The retendering process started on Monday.

The other bidders include Gamuda, Torno Internazionale Spa and the Jakarta Consortium.

Reports said that the three other bidders were only informed about the special treatment facility given to the Malaysian consortium on Friday by the tendering committee.

Separately, a member of the House of Representatives Commission IV on transportation and infrastructure, Enggartiasto Lukita, said that both the government and the bidding committee should give equal treatment to all bidders.

JORR is a 56.87 kilometer toll road project that was initially developed by three investors, PT Cakra Bhakti Margatama Persada, PT Citra Mataram Satriamarga Persada and PT Marga Nurindo Bhakti under a build-operate-transfer (BOT) system with Jasa Marga. The three firms are linked to the eldest daughter of former president Soeharto, Siti Hardijanti Rukmana.

The three investors borrowed around Rp 1 trillion from local banks to finance the project, but after the country was hit by the Asian financial crisis in the middle of 1997, the project was canceled and investors were unable to repay the banks.

IBRA then took over the loans and the project. IBRA then teamed up with Jasa Marga to set up a new company called PT Jalantol Lingkarluar Jakarta (JLJ) to proceed with the project and find new investors.