Sutiyoso ready to face lawsuit

JAKARTA (JP): Governor Sutiyoso stressed on Monday his readiness to face a lawsuit filed late last week by 17 lawyers who called themselves members of the Association of Indonesian Reform Era Lawyers over a cooperative agreement on water management.

According to the governor, he has set up a team of lawyers to defend him in court to counter the charges which, among other things, claim that the agreement between city water company PDAM Jaya and its foreign partners is illegal.

Sutiyoso said his defense team would consist of legal experts from his office's law bureau.

"I have handed over the case to the bureau and trusted it to form the team members," he said.

Last Friday, the lawyers, who also claimed to represent the Jakarta chapter of the Indonesian Water Contractors Association (Akaindo) and the Jakarta people, sued the governor along with PDAM Jaya and nine other parties over the recent water management deals between PDAM Jaya and Britain's Thames Water Overseas Ltd. and the French company Suez Lyonnaise des Eaux.

The lawyers' spokesman, Sitor Situmorang, said they wanted the court to revoke the agreement, insisting that the deal only benefited the foreign companies and burdened PDAM and Jakartans in general.

The water contractors said the agreement was illegal since the two foreign companies were appointed directly and not after a competitive bidding process as required by presidential decree No. 16/1994.

They also asked the court to order the defendants to pay Rp 100 billion for losses suffered by Akaindo members and Jakartans.

The lawyers did not apparently describe which residents of Jakarta, which currently number 9.8 million people, are to receive the compensation.

Sutiyoso denied all the lawyers' allegations, saying: "I think the allegations are not true, all clauses in the agreement have been thoroughly checked, including the legal aspects".

He refused to elaborate further, asking the public to wait for the trial. (ind)