Selection of winner of Rp 324b ballot box tender questioned

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.