Police deny buying Timor cars illegally

Police deny buying Timor cars illegally

JAKARTA (JP): National Police were irked on Wednesday by an
allegation made by PT Timor Putra Nusantara (TPN) which said the
police had purchased 100 Timor sedans through illegal
transactions.

Showing the purchase documents of the vehicles, head of the
National Police Logistics Directorate, Brig. Gen. Bambang
Susetyo, said the allegation made public by TPN last Friday was
totally groundless.

"The vehicles you've seen being used at the National Police
Headquarters here are all bought through legal purchases.

"We have enough evidence for that," the one-star general said
at a media conference which was held abruptly by his office.

According to Bambang, the National Police purchased the cars
in April this year at the price of Rp 60 million (US$9,000 at the
current exchange rate) each.

"We spent a total of Rp 6 billion for all the cars," he said.

The price of the Timor sedans was considered to be the
cheapest at the time as prices of other cars soared due to
uncertain rates of the domestic currency against the greenback,
he said.

"So how can TPN, which should thank the police for all of our
goodwill to help them in the past, turn on us and make a
groundless accusation like that to the public?" Bambang asked.

TPN, owned by Hutomo "Tommy" Mandala Putra -- the youngest son
of former president Soeharto, invited reporters on Friday to hear
disclosed findings that at least 300 Timor cars of various types
were sold to the police without official documents by PT Catur
Gatra Eka Perkasa (PT CGEP), a distributor for Timor cars.

So far, TPN said, it only found 100 units which were used by
high-ranking officers at the National Police Headquarters.

"There is a conspiracy between PT CGEP and the police," TPN's
lawyer Nurdiman Munir said.

He therefore urged the police to return the disputed cars and
properly settle the matter out of court.

TPN was once awarded rights to develop the controversial
"national car" project by Soeharto, which sparked strong
criticism from both local and foreign carmakers.

The company was also given exemptions on import duty and taxes
to import assembled sedans manufactured by South Korea's Kia
Motor Co.

According to officer Bambang, the police had no plan to go
through with legal procedures to settle the matter.

"It's (the media conference) enough. As long as we have
already clarified the matter to the media," he said.

Its relationship with the police started in 1996 when the
latter signed a contract with TPN for use of the National Police
warehouses in Cipinang, East Jakarta, to keep the sedans.

The warehouses were usually used to store ammunition and other
military equipment, Bambang said.

"The warehouses are military facilities. And in all of world
history, only we have let a privately owned company use our
'sterile' warehouses," he added, to show an example of police
goodwill to TPN.

Bambang, however, declined to answer why the police let TPN
use the facilities.

"We all know why," he said, probably referring to the
authoritarian rule of Soeharto.

Based on a contract, which will end this month, TPN fixed up
some of the warehouse, such as the air conditioners, iron gates
and access roads.

"But after the mid-May riots last year, they moved out without
notifying us and took some of the fixtures," he said without
elaborating.

Bambang said when the riots erupted, it was the police who
safeguarded the cars from angry mobs, who were about to break
into the warehouse in anger of special treatment given to Timor
by Soeharto.(emf)