Markup, scam feared in busway project
Ahmad Junaidi, The Jakarta Post, Jakarta
City councillors suspected on Friday that corruption lay behind the reallocation of Rp 54 billion, earlier planned for the busway project but then shifted to finance the purchase of goods for the City Transportation Agency.
"We consider that the price of the goods may have been marked up," councillor Syamsidar Siregar, secretary of the National Mandate Party (PAN) faction, said.
Syamsidar, who is also a member of Council Commission C for financial and budgetary affairs, said the purchase had not been discussed by a team that was assigned to review the 2002 city budget.
The purchase was proposed by City Transportation Agency head Rustam Effendy to Council Commission D for development affairs without informing City Governor Sutiyoso.
Syamsidar revealed that Rustam's superiors, including Finance Assistant to the City Secretary Makmun Amin and City Development Planning Office head Ritola Tasmaya, had not been informed about the change of plan either.
"The governor should reprimand the official who has changed the budget allocation," Syamsidar said.
The City Council approved, on a vote last week, the reallocation of the Rp 54 billion. PAN and the Justice Party rejected the reallocation of the funds.
According to the plan, the transportation agency intended to purchase, among other things, digital equipment for vehicle testing, worth Rp 7.2 billion, walkie-talkies (Rp 1.5 billion), laptop computers (Rp 425 million), CCTVs (Rp 6.7 billion), digital traffic lights (Rp 12 billion) and semi-electric tow cars (Rp 3.6 billion).
Sources said the agency had marked up the price of the goods, such as the walkie-talkies, said to have cost Rp 8 million each, and laptop computers, which reportedly cost Rp 50 million each, although the genuine price in the market was much lower than that.
An employee at an electronics shop said on Friday that the price of a walkie-talkie was only Rp 2.5 million to Rp 3.5 million.
Meanwhile, councillor Soleh Rahman raised the possibility that some of the goods had been purchased before they had been approved by the council last week via the revised budget.
"It's incorrect procedure but common practice in the agency and the administration in general," Soleh, from Commission D, said.
Although the reallocation of the Rp 54 billion has been approved by the Council, Sutiyoso has repeatedly said that the busway project would start this year.
Many feared that the project, aimed to solve the city's chaotic transportation problems, would actually worsen traffic congestion and cause environmental damage.
It was postponed due to a lack of funds and of promotion.