KPPU to investigate JORR tender

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.