Port users told not to pay bribes

Port users told not to pay bribes

The Jakarta Post, Jakarta

The government urged on Thursday all stakeholders -- including
state institutions and private firms -- that use domestic
seaports to refuse to pay illegal fees.

Coordinating Minister for the Economy Aburizal Bakrie, as
quoted by a member of the special government team on improving
trade facilitation and the Indonesia Exporters Association (GPEI)
secretary-general Toto Dirgantoro, said the private sector should
join forces and stop paying any form of illegal fees at ports.

Likewise, all government officials and institutions should
immediately stop demanding illegal fees, he said.

"The coordinating minister also said illegal fees, which are
crimes, should be followed up by legal proceedings," Toto told
The Jakarta Post after the team presented its findings to
Aburizal on Thursday night.

The National Police and the Attorney General's Office have
joined in the team and will follow up on any reports of possible
corruption cases at the ports.

A recent survey by the Indonesian Textile Association (API)
shows that exporters of 20-foot equivalent units (TEUs)
containers, on average, are required to pay an additional Rp 1.04
million (US$109) in illegal fees, on top of the standard fee of
Rp 989,600.

Importers, meanwhile, paid an extra Rp 976,900, on average, in
addition to a Rp 1.48 million fee per 20-foot container,
according to the survey.

As a result, the country lost over $715 million last year due
to inefficiencies caused by illegal fees on 5.5 million TEUs of
containers through Tanjung Priok, it says.

The team presented to Aburizal a set of recommendations on
improving the flow of goods through the country's ports,
particularly Tanjung Priok port in Jakarta.

However, Toto said, Aburizal asked the team to modify the
recommendations to include other detailed input so they could
provide a concrete action plan for the government.

The team questioned the ambiguous role of state port operator
PT Pelabuhan Indonesia (Pelindo) II in Tanjung Priok break-bulk
port -- as over the years Pelindo had acted as the port regulator
instead of its original role as operator.

Aburizal asked the team to recommend which institutions should
take the role as the port's sole regulator. He expected the team
to submit the recommendations for revision on June 8.

Minister for Transportation Hatta Radjasa said after the
presentation that stakeholders had agreed to remove all rent-
seeking activities that added greatly to the high cost of doing
business in this country, especially when using ports.

Pelindo has outsourced the management of its 20 docks in
Tanjung Priok to the 11 terminal handling firms (PBMs) since
1999. There are a total of 160 individual PBMs working at the
port.

In pursuit of a profit for Pelindo, the 11 dock operators
compete with each other to get the most vessels to use their
docks, disregarding the capacity or capability of any given dock,
let alone overall efficiency or national development, the team
reported.