Markup, scam feared in busway project

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.