KPU to conduct field check on questionable tender winner
KPU to conduct field check on questionable tender winner
Moch. N. Kurniawan, The Jakarta Post, Jakarta
Under close public scrutiny, the General Elections Commission
(KPU) has decided to conduct a field check on the winning
consortium for the Rp 324 billion (US$38 million) aluminum ballot
boxes tender.
KPU member Mulyana W. Kusumah, in charge of the ballot boxes
tender, said on Monday the three-day check was meant to prove
whether or not PT Survindo Indah Prestasi should have won the
tender.
KPU announced the tender result last Wednesday, giving
Survindo the highest score of 92 during the administrative and
technical evaluation, and stating its quotation to be Rp 311
billion.
The five latest contender consortiums, Borimex with a score of
53, Tjakrindo Mas (66), Phun Deang (35), Elang Satria Jaya Abadi
(49) and Almas (55), failed to qualify for the quotation stage as
they scored less than the minimum 80.
Three, Borimex, Tjakrindo Mas and Phun Deang, have questioned
KPU's decision.
They claimed KPU failed to make field checks on Survindo
factories and all its consortium members during the tender.
They also alleged Survindo and its consortium members had
questionable data in terms of their addresses and the
capabilities of their factories.
At least seven senior staff from KPU would go to Medan,
Jakarta and Surabaya to check all factories within the Survindo
network, senior KPU staffer M.M. Purba said.
According to a document made available to journalists,
Survindo is a printing and publishing company but it took part in
the aluminum ballot boxes tender as KPU classified the tender as
the procurement of warehouse and office goods.
Survindo also managed to obtain a certificate from the Jakarta
Chamber of Commerce and Industry and the joint committee of
Jakarta certification on July 9, 2003. The certificate states
that the company is a warehouse and office goods provider,
printing and publishing company, agriculture product firm and
land, sea and air transportation rental firm.
Mulyana acknowledged KPU had verified only some of the
factories within the networks of tender participants, including
those of Survindo in Tangerang and another city in West Java.
He said the definitive winner would be announced after the
field checks were completed, by which time any complaints would
be rendered invalid. The complaint period would last until
Wednesday.
"Otherwise, KPU could declare the tender invalid and will
consider revising Instruction No. 621/2003 on ballot box
provision under a decentralized system," he told a media
conference.
At present, tenders are processed under a centralized
mechanism at national level by KPU.