Utilities remain public enemies No. 1 through 5

Tony Hotland, The Jakarta Post, Jakarta

Monopolistic practices and a lack of concern toward public complaints were continuing to perpetuate a culture of poor public service in the country, the Indonesian Consumers Foundation (YLKI) lamented on Monday.

Citing YLKI's 2003 annual report, released in conjunction with World Consumer Rights Day on Monday, YLKI head Indah Suksmaningsih said poor service still reigned in the provision of public services, despite constant rises in prices.

The report found telephone, banking, electricity, water, and housing services remained the top five concerns -- as they were in 2002.

"This means that the business players in such services haven't improved their performances. The unfairness increases as these players continue raising their prices," she said.

Over 1,600 complaints were submitted via letters and telephone calls to the foundation last year.

Indah called for an end to all monopolies across the country.

"Monopolies make it impossible for consumers to find alternatives," she said.

She cited the recent move by state-owned oil and gas company PT Pertamina to increase the price of liquefied petroleum gas (LPG).

"Consumers can do nothing about it because there are no alternative providers," Indah said.

For electricity, which is provided by state-owned company PT PLN, consumers have complained about the discrepancies between their bills and the actual amount of electricity used, and the unstable voltage provided, which can damage electronic devices.

YLKI said the discrepancies were due to the company's meter readers who often estimated the likely payments within an area instead of directly visiting the houses to record the usage on the meter.

A spokesman from PT PLN Muljo Adjie told The Jakarta Post the company was following a program to improve services.

This commitment, he said, was shown in stricter supervision of meter reading, which included a re-check method for meters, and the regular monitoring of faults on electricity poles and generators.

Another new effort was the launching of the hotline 123 for PT PLN on Friday. "Through this line, we aim to respond to complaints as fast as possible," Muljo said.

For water services, provided by PT PAM, consumers' complaints were mainly about the poor quality of water and frequent unannounced disruptions to the supply.

PAM's Jakarta director Didiet Haryadi said PAM had been intensifying its efforts to solve these problems.

"Most of the problems lie in the distribution difficulties and water availability," he told the Post.

Didiet said the company would begin relocating water pumps to denser city areas to accommodate more consumers, and increase the quantity of water reservoirs.

He said a shortage of qualified technical officers was one of the reasons behind the company's slow response to consumer complaints.