Soewardi under fire over Timor car orders

SEMARANG (JP): Central Java Governor Soewardi's plan to buy 105 Timor cars for senior officials and regents came under fire yesterday from provincial councilors and the public.

The critics said the governor should have got provincial legislative council approval before deciding to spend taxpayers' money on the cars.

Councilors said the purchase of the "national cars" had not been included in the current 1997/1998 budget.

Golkar councilor Soetomo urged the governor to have the budget revised to include the purchase.

He said the governor should not buy any more of the cars than was necessary. "If only 10 cars are needed, don't buy more than that," he said.

Soewardi announced Thursday that he had ordered 105 Timor cars from a local dealer, PT Mobil Nasional Jateng. He said the purchase was meant to encourage the public to love locally made products.

Timor has been the official sedan for senior government bureaucrats and state company executives since April.

The national car program, launched in February 1996, grants tariff and luxury sales-tax exemptions for national cars on condition that their local content rises to 60 percent in three years.

However, only a joint venture of PT Timor Putra Nasional, headed by Hutomo Mandala Putra, President Soeharto's youngest son, and South Korea's Kia Motors is allowed to make national cars. It can do so until 1999.

The policy has been criticized by Japan, U.S. and European countries. Japan has threatened to take the case to the World Trade Organization.

United Development Party councilor Djuhad Mahya insisted that, although governor Soewardi had ordered the cars, he should seek an amendment to the budget.

"The plan should be based on actual needs and I don't think the cars have to be Timor," he said.

A political observer from Semarang's Diponegoro University, Nugroho S.B.M., said yesterday the governor should seek legislative council approval for the purchase.

Nugroho asked why the governor had not tendered the purchase according to regulations.

"Bidding is necessary to ensure fair play," he said. "In a case where there is no a tender, a project should have legislative council approval." (har/pan)