'Middlemen' cheated villagers out of electricity supply

BOGOR (JP): Many villagers in the Bogor area attempting to get an electricity supply to their homes have been cheated by middlemen, an executive of the state electricity firm PT PLN said on Thursday.

The middlemen, mushrooming in number in the past few months, have collected installation fees worth hundreds of thousands of rupiahs from the applicants, saying that this money would be handed over to a local PLN office as required, Pandu Anklasito, head of Bogor PLN, told The Jakarta Post.

Instead of giving the money to PLN, the brokers absconded, leaving the villagers confused.

"About 99 percent of the applicants for the power supply paid an installation fee to a middleman but this never found its way to PLN," he added.

Pandu was asked to comment following the vigorous complaints of dozens of Warung Nangka villagers in the Harjasari area here over the status of their applications.

According to the protesters, they had indeed paid the installation fees to PLN months ago but as of Thursday their homes remained without power.

Chotib, a Warung Nangka resident, said he had already submitted his complaints to PLN but had received no response.

"I paid for installation months ago. There's still no electricity in my house," Chotib said.

Chotib added that when he asked about the matter with the men he made the payments to, they said that installation plans had been deferred due to skyrocketing prices of cables and electricity wiring.

Pandu cited Chotib as one example.

"We have no data about Chotib in our file, meaning that he has not yet been registered," he said.

According to Pandu, the growing need among the villagers to use the help of middlemen was mainly due to reluctance on their part to visit the PLN headquarters in Bogor.

"They're probably ashamed to enter the PLN office because of their status as villagers," he said.

In an attempt to stop middleman operations, PLN has regularly urged villagers via pamphlets, leaflets and radio stations to go directly to its office to process their applications.

"The problem is they still use middlemen," he said.

This year, he said, the company's Bogor office plans to serve some 10,960 new clients.

Of them, he said, 8,500 would be those living in remote areas, Pandu said.

"We'll offer most of the customers to-be a supply of 1,300 KV, which is the minimum voltage for urban residents. Should they object to the offer, they will be put on the waiting list," he said. (24/ylt)