Selection of winner of Rp 324b ballot box tender questioned

The Jakarta Post, Jakarta

Flaws have been discovered in the process by which the General Elections Commission (KPU) selected a company with numerous questions hanging over it to provide ballot boxes for the 2004 elections.

A document from the Setiabudi tax office shows that PT Survindo Indah Prestasi, which was named the winner of the Rp 324 billion (US$38 million) tender, is a printing and publishing company and a non-tax burdened firm.

An employee with the Directorate General for Taxation confirmed the authenticity of the document.

The company's office is located on Jl. Gatot Subroto and falls under the tax office's control.

According to the KPU tender announcement dated Sept. 2, the commission required tender participants to submit, among other things, proof of their status as a tax burdened firm.

Responding to the findings, Sihol Manullang, the executive director of Survindo, said the company had submitted a document stipulating that it was a tax burdened firm.

KPU member Mulyana W. Kusumah, head of the ballot box tender team, said he would look into the report.

He refused to speculate on the possibility of disqualifying Survindo, saying if the firm was non-tax burdened it should not have submitted an after-tax price in the tender.

"Survindo should return the taxes to the KPU if it is not a tax burdened firm," he said on Sunday.

Survindo quoted a price of Rp 311 billion after taxes to produce 2.1 million ballot boxes for the general election. It beat out five other companies to win the tender.

Mulyana also said the fact that Survindo was not an aluminum producer was of no concern.

He said the KPU had classified the provision of aluminum ballot boxes as a warehouse and office goods tender.

Sihol said his company had met all of the KPU requirements as a firm that could provide warehouse and office goods.

He said Survindo had three main businesses: warehouse and office goods provider, printing and publishing, and agriculture material manufacturer.

"There was no requirement from the KPU that we must directly produce aluminum products, but we have a network of factories that make aluminum products," he said.

The money to purchase the ballot boxes will come from the KPU's budget.

Legislator Mutamimmul Ula of the Reform faction called on the KPU to be transparent in its tenders.

"If there is a lack of transparency in the tenders, this will harm the legitimacy of the KPU as a credible institution to oversee the elections," he said.