Telkom service in Banten, W. Java disrupted

BANDUNG, West Java (JP): Some 1,500 employees of state-owned telecommunications company PT Telkom from regional division (Divre) III marched to the West Java provincial council on Monday, demanding the council and local administration push the central government to set up an emergency management for the division which oversees Banten and West Java.

"A transitional management is needed now. Services to West Java and Banten customers are hampered because there are no operational funds," deputy chairman of Telkom employees' union I Ketut Tedja said.

They claimed that since the termination of cooperation between the division and its partner PT Ariawest International (PT AWI) over a management dispute, the division has been stagnant.

They said that there had been no delegation of authority or responsibility since general manager Michael Lee Towne was withdrawn by PT AWI, causing a shortage on the release of operational funds.

Tedja said that consequently the billing of hundreds of thousands of customers has been delayed as telephone bills were not printed.

Another 90,000 new telephone customers applications could not be processed.

Tedja further disclosed that since Thursday, more than 10,000 telephone connections in Rangkasbitung and Cianjur had broken down as there were no funds to repair a damaged automatic connection installation.

"Actually since April six central automatic connection installations have broken down. We are unable to fix them because there are no funds," Ahmad Yahya, who is head of the Rangkasbitung Telkom office, told the councillors.

The employees union said they were forced to stage a rally because they were embarrassed by the many complaints received.

"We don't know how to explain to them (customers). The disputes inside the company are really not their concern," Tedja charged.

In a separate closed meeting, West Java Governor R. Nuriana also aired his concern over the disrupted telephone services.

The Telkom employees threatened to stage more rallies if their demands were not fulfilled. (25)