Officials blame each other in alleged taxi scandal
Damar Harsanto, The Jakarta Post, Jakarta
City officials are pointing their fingers at one another in the controversy surrounding taxi company PT Primer Metro Transindo, which has been accused of obtaining illegal permits to operate 300 taxis in the capital.
A document circulated around City Hall Wednesday showed that City Transportation Agency head Rustam Effendy Sidabutar recommended that Deputy Governor Fauzi Bowo issue an operating license for the company, which wants to operate minivan taxis.
"PT Primer has applied for an operational permit for 300 vehicles and has already prepared the fleet. It also has a taxi pool, workshop and office for its operations," Rustam said in his recommendation.
Based on the recommendation, a letter signed by Fauzi Bowo was issued for the authorization of PT Primer to operate in Jakarta despite public pronouncements by officials that taxi licenses were already closed due to an oversupply of taxis.
Fauzi said earlier this month that he never signed a letter of approval and that his signature on the document was forged.
City Audit Agency head Firman Hutajulu had questioned relevant officials and declared three officials as suspects in the alleged forgery case. They are the current head of the public transportation business division with the City Transportation Agency, Bambang Gardjito, former transportation division of the City Economic Development Bureau, Nahar Arifin, and current head of the passenger vehicles section of the City Economic Development Bureau, Rizwan Santosa.
Firman said that the administration had decided to dismiss the officials and reported them to the police. The Jakarta police have reportedly begun investigating the case, but have declared no suspects yet.
Fauzi could not be reached for comment on Thursday.
The document surfaced just days after Rustam told the press that Governor Sutiyoso had quietly issued in 2002 a decree allowing new investment in the taxi business, suggesting that the city administration had deceived the public by pronouncing that the sector had been closed to new investment due to an oversupply of taxis in the capital.
There are currently around 25,000 taxis operated by 37 firms in Jakarta.
Rustam's claims that PT Primer had 300 vehicles and that it had an office turned out to be fallacious as the company had only 50 taxis and the office stated in the proposal proved to be fictitious.
In its proposal, PT Primer stated that its office was located in Gading Bukit Indah complex Block K/24 in Kelapa Gading Permai, North Jakarta.
A security guard in the complex, Koeswoyo, 25, said that the four-story shophouse belonged to Ibu Nani and its construction was just completed at the end of 2003.
"Ibu Nani did some renovation work on the shophouse in January 2004. But, as of today, no person or company has rented the shophouse," Koeswoyo said.
Another proposal signed by Primer president director Ruddy Luhur stated that it proposed the operation of Kijang vans instead of sedans for the taxis, which were aimed at passengers that need more space at airport, malls and star-rated hotels.