Workers union urges city to settle corruption cases

JAKARTA (JP): The workers union at the city-owned tap water company PAM demanded on Tuesday the City Council push the city administration to settle corruption cases at city-owned companies.

"The City Council's Team 11 earlier announced the existence of corruption cases totaling between Rp 1.3 trillion to Rp 1.6 trillion (US$185 million to 228 million)," the union's chairman Idris Mansuri said, without giving details.

The council established Team 11 early last month to evaluate PAM Jaya's water management deal with its two foreign partners, PT Thames Pam Jaya (TPJ) and PT Pam Lyonnaise Jaya (Palyja).

"We also found corruption costing at least Rp 126 billion in Pam Jaya's projects," Idris added.

He said there were at least three major projects where 10 percent of the value of each project had been corrupted.

"The projects were PAM Jaya System Improvement Project (PJSIP) worth Rp 400 billion, the Zone 3 and 6 piping projects also worth Rp 400 billion and the Buaran 2 piping project worth Rp 350 billion," Idris said.

"PAM Jaya executives corrupted Rp 115 billion from those projects," he said, while citing the union had found a lot of fictions works and those which did not meet the company's standards and requirements.

"For example, we found pipes not installed in sand as they were supposed to be. Where has all the money and sand gone?" said Idris, while hinting that the union had uncovered a loss of Rp 11 billion worth of pipes and accessories.

"We've checked it and found that the total loss from the three projects was Rp 126 billion," he said.

Idris also said PAM Jaya executives had used workers' money to buy 30 Timor sedans without their consent.

"The money belonged to the worker's cooperative and has been used illegally," he said.

"The sedans were bought at Rp 40 million each while the market price was Rp 50 million at the time of purchase.

"The company then sold the sedans to Palyja and TPJ executives for Rp 10 million each."

Idris set a three-day deadline for the City Council to issue an order to the city administration to cancel the water management deal.

"We'll be here on Friday to know the final decision on the water deal," said Idris to the councilors.

Team 11's chairman Tarmidi Suhardjo, from the Indonesian Democratic Party of Struggle (PDI Perjuangan) faction, said the team's duty was to issue a recommendation on the water management deal.

"The team doesn't have any authority to decide on the deal, whether to continue with it or not. It's up to the council speaker to do so," said Tarmidi.

He, however, promised to reveal the truth in all the corruption cases.

"The team will ask the council leaders to have a say on the corruption cases," he said. (05)