Thames and Palyja clarify on audit
We write with reference to your article of April 10, Discrepancy found in water firm debt, as this conveys an inaccurate and misleading interpretation of the facts. In particular, the article quotes the Regulatory Body as stating, "the operator's debt was smaller than what had been claimed by the two foreign partners" and referring to the Development Finance Comptroller (BPKP) as the authoritative source. The article also goes on to say "both TPJ and Palyja earlier claimed that PDAM PAM Jaya's debt stood at Rp 990 billion, but the figure from the comptroller's report was not available".
As a matter of record, the BPKP was commissioned by PAM Jaya and its private partners to audit and verify the debt of PAM Jaya to Palyja and TPJ for the period from Feb. 1, 1998, to March 31, 2001, only. To date this report has not been finalized and remains unofficial. However, the preliminary BPKP report indicated a high degree of agreement with the private parties' own estimates, with only small variation in the calculation of the debt. In addition, the period from April 2001 onward remains to be verified.
The Rp 990 billion referred to actually originates from the Regulatory Body during November last year when it stated in an interview with another publication (Bisnis Indonesia, Nov. 22), "PDAM Jaya has debts of Rp 1.7 trillion to the Finance Ministry and another Rp 990 billion to TPJ and Palyja".
Recent decisions on tariffs by the Provincial Legislative Council (DPRD) and the Jakarta Administration (DKI) during 2003 have gone a long way toward starting to rectify the situation, although the majority of the debt remains to be paid at this point. In all circumstances the amount of debt owing to the private parties will be verified by independent sources as a matter of course; therefore, to report a "discrepancy" and imply that it is based on claims by TPJ or Palyja is unfounded and a regrettable error.
JOHN TREW President Director PT Thames Pam Jaya Jakarta THIERRY KRIEG President Director PT PAM LYONNAISE JAYA Jakarta