Merpati says govt approved its office project

JAKARTA (JP): PT Merpati Nusantara Airlines announced here yesterday that the government has approved its new office building, and that the construction meets all legal requirements.

The new building was officially opened by the president of Garuda airline in early September.

Merpati was responding yesterday to Director General of Air Transportation Zainuddin Sikado's statement that the planned replacement of Merpati president Ridwan Fatarudin had nothing to do with his refusal to lease domestically made 16 CN-235-200 aircraft. Sikado said the replacement of Merpati's president was due to the fact that the new building was constructed without permission from the government.

Sikado said, as quoted by several daily newspapers over the weekend, that Ridwan had failed to toe the government line in several instances.

Defending his decision not to lease the planes, Ridwan said earlier that the leasing rate was too expensive and the 14 CN-235-10s currently operated by the airline company had caused it to lose money due to high operation costs.

Sikado said late last week that one of Ridwan's gravest mistakes was erecting the Rp 50 billion (US$24,700,000) office building without reporting to the ministers of finance and of transportation for permission.

The law stipulates that the minister of finance is a nominal shareholder of all state-owned companies and that Merpati is a subsidiary of the national flag carrier, Garuda Indonesia.

Merpati's statement, which was signed by the head of its public relations department, A. Tondo Widodo, related the chronological history of the construction of the new building.

The project started in January 1991 when Merpati shareholders, Garuda, approved the plan to buy a 6,6640-square-meter plot of land for the site of its office. The decision was signed by M. Soeparno, president of Garuda Indonesia, the company which owns Merpati, and Merpati's president F.H. Sumolang and commissioner Husaini Harbani.

"Ridwan was appointed as Merpati president 18 months later on Aug. 2, 1992," the statement said.

Several days later, Coordinating Minister of Finance and Development Supervision Saleh Afiff agreed to the proposal made by Merpati's president that PT Wijaya Karya win the tender to construct the building which was to be financed with loans from domestic banks.

The proposal was officially upheld by Garuda in April 1993. In September of the same year, Garuda asked permission from the ministers of finance and transportation for Merpati to take out a loan worth Rp 52.5 billion from Bank Danamon for the purpose.

Two weeks later the Ministry of Finance, in a letter signed by the acting director general of state-owned company development and the director general of financial institutions, stated that any agreement on the matter could be decided by Garuda.

The statement said that three floors of the 15-story building, which was opened by Garuda's president Soepandi last month, will be rented out to outside business organizations in order to pay off the bank loan.

Up to last week one-and-a-half floors had been leased.

Merpati's public relations chief said the statement was issued to give a clear explanation about the construction of the office building. (tis)