Sutiyoso ready to face lawsuit

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)