PPP questions SGS contract

PPP questions SGS contract

JAKARTA (JP): The Moslem-dominated United Development Party faction at the House of Representatives yesterday called on the government to thoroughly evaluate its contract with the Geneva- based Societe Generale de Surveillance (SGS).

"The results of the evaluation are very important for the deliberation of the custom bill," the faction's spokesman, Muhammad Djafar Siddiq, said after deliberating bills on customs, excise and stock markets.

Djafar said the contract with SGS, which has been renewed several times since 1985, has been continued for too long and has cost the government some Rp 2.5 trillion (US$1.1 billion).

"The PPP faction has to ask the government what the real reasons were when it changed from an on-arrival inspection to a pre-shipment inspection system 10 years ago," Djafar said.

Pre-shipment inspection has become an issue since the Econit Advisory Group suggested that the government stop the contract with SGS and give more customs power to the country's Directorate General of Customs and Excise.

Earlier this year, Minister of Finance Mar'ie Muhammad said at a recent hearing with the House's budgetary commission that the government might transfer what SGS had done thus far to a local surveyor company, either PT Surveyor Indonesia or PT Sucofindo, and use SGS as a technical assistant only.

The government does not state clearly either pre-shipment or on-arrival inspections in the bill, which, Djafar said, will give the government the freedom to decide which is more suitable.

"It is enough just to state in the customs bill that there must be customs inspections," Djafar conceded.

All four House factions -- PPP, the ruling Golkar party, the Indonesian Democratic Party and the Armed Forces -- agree that the presentation of the three bills is timely, especially now that Indonesia is entering the era of trade globalization. (rid)