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.