Officials blame each other in alleged taxi scandal

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.