PTSI management to be reorganized
JAKARTA (JP): State Minister for the Empowerment of State Enterprises Tanri Abeng said state-owned PT Surveyor Indonesia (PTSI) would soon hold a shareholders meeting to appoint a finance director, a position which is now held concurrently by president Toga M. Sitompul.
"We are now evaluating several candidates for that position," Tanri told reporters in reply to questions as to why the two important managerial positions were held by the same person.
Some analysts and legislators had recently criticized PTSI for what they alleged to be corruption and financial mismanagement due to the double function of its chief director.
La Ode Kamaluddin, a member of the House of Representatives Commission VIII for finance, budget and state companies, for example, had questioned the effectiveness of the supervision within PTSI because its chief commissioner, Soedarjono, is also chairman of the Development and Finance Comptroller Agency (BPKP).
BPKP annually audits PTSI's financial reports.
However, Tanri saw this only as an emergency situation which would duly be corrected.
"Until now, I don't see any reason to suspect a conflict of interest. Moreover, we need Soedarjono's professional experiences until a qualified successor is available," added Tanri.
He said that he had yet to consult the coordinating minister for development supervision, Hartarto, about the matter.
PTSI, which is 76 percent owned by the government, 20 percent owned by Swiss Societe Generale de Surveillance (SGS) and 4 percent owned by PT Sucofindo, another state-owned surveyor company, was set up in July 1991 to take over the preshipment inspection of Indonesian imports from SGS.
However, the contract was terminated in April 1997 as the government restored customs inspections of imports at the ports of unloading.
PTSI came under a barrage of criticism recently for alleged corruption and mismanagement due to ineffective supervision and its failure to develop new businesses.
Even now, according to critics, the company has survived only because of another government contract, awarded in August 1997, to verify imported equipment for the oil and gas industry.
Toga recently claimed to have gained a technical inspection contract from Vietnam, but the Vietnamese commercial attache in Jakarta denied the existence of such a deal.
The BPKP audit of PTSI's financial reports for 1997 found a loss of Rp 2.42 billion incurred by its investments in mutual funds which have nothing to do with its core business.
Moreover, provisional estimates of PT Surveyor Indonesia revenues for 1998 have further heightened analysts' and legislators' assumptions that the state-owned company would be bankrupt without the government contracts.
Latest estimates show that almost 95 percent of PTSI's revenues for 1998 were generated by its contract to verify imported equipment for the oil and gas industry, while only 5 percent of its revenues were generated by new businesses developed since last year.
The revenue-generating ratio was in sharp contrast to its 1998 Working Plan which projected 60 percent of its total revenues would be from new businesses.
PTSI even acknowledged in the 1999 Working and Budget Plan it submitted to Tanri's office that almost Rp 48 billion, or 45 percent, of its Rp 98 billion in 1998 revenues from its government contract would be a windfall gain from the rupiah's sharp depreciation.
Some analysts and legislators have therefore suggested that because PTSI and PT Sucofindo operate in the same areas of business, they be merged for efficiency.
In fact, one of the measures stipulated in the Master Plan on the Reform of State-owned Enterprises, issued by Minister Tanri last week, is the planned merger of PTSI and PT Sucofindo.
Tanri said the merger process is still being studied.
"We want to ensure that the groundwork for the merger is solid," Tanri added. (rei/vin)