Parties out to exploit state firms: Sources

Parties out to exploit state firms: Sources

JAKARTA (JP): State companies remain highly vulnerable to
exploitation as cash cows for political groups like they were
under previous political administrations, informed sources said
on Monday.

Officials at the Office of the State Minister of Investment
and State Companies Development Laksamana Sukardi disclosed that
many vested-interest political groups aggressively lobbied to
have their choice of representative appointed to boards of
directors of state companies.

The sources, who requested anonymity, said Laksamana was
increasingly frustrated because his drive to clean up state
companies from corruption was often undermined by politically
well-connected officials in his own office.

They added that some top officials at Laksamana's office were
found to have misused the minister's name for payment or other
forms of personal favors from state companies' management.

Laksamana's predecessor, Tanri Abeng, who is now a suspect in
a corruption case related to the Bank Bali scandal, also
expressed concern over what he called the use of state companies
as a political instrument.

"I heard several state companies' directors complain of
uncertainty about their real function due to strong intervention
from outside to make the public companies a political instrument
for certain groups," Tanri said in Bandung over the weekend.

He added the practice must be stopped or state companies would
become uncompetitive and eventually be edged out of the market.

Several members of the House of Representatives also have
expressed concern that many state companies were managed by
corrupt officials appointed during Soeharto's administration.

"It is deplorable that not all senior officials at Minister
Laksamana's office fully support the cleanup campaign at state
companies," Didi Supriyadi of the House finance and budget
commission said.

Didi said what has been dubbed the fit-and-proper test
conducted to screen professional managers with high integrity for
state companies' boards of directors appeared to have been
manipulated by some political groups to ensure their choices were
picked.

Another House member, Usman Ermulan, recommended that
independent assessments be assured through the selection of
personnel for state companies' boards of directors under clear-
cut guidelines by an interministerial team.