Ina Parlina, Jakarta – The Corruption Eradication Commission (KPK) blamed politics for the absence of a deterrent effect that should have resulted from the sentencing of state-owned enterprise managers.
Busyro Muqoddas, KPK deputy chairman for prevention unit, said that the reason so many state-owned enterprises and those owned by local administrations are entangled in graft was because they "are compromised by politicians from certain political parties".
"Eventually, these government projects, which are supposed to be fair and clean, must deal with political interests," Busyro said on Monday.
Busyro was speaking at a discussion organized by the KPK. He said that many of these enterprises eventually subcontracted the projects they won to "incompetent companies, particularly troubled ones affiliated with certain political parties."
Busyro urged State-Owned Enterprises Minister Dahlan Iskan, who was also a panel member in the discussion, to design a specific regulation that could protect SOEs from such political interests.
Dahlan refused to take the blame, saying that it was the SOEs and not his office, which should take responsibility for graft problems.
"As long as the bidding process does not prohibit such sub-contracting practices, essentially it is allowed," he said. "So, the key [to having a clean bidding process] is not the contractors, but the project owners because they are the ones who control the process."
Dahlan, however, admitted that a limited internal survey showed that 70 percent of state-owned construction companies were offered fees to win government projects.
Busyro revealed that between 2008 and 2012 his office often dealt with cases implicating SOEs, including two recent cases being investigated by the KPK; the construction of sports facilities for upcoming national games (PON) in Riau which implicated an official from state-owned housing company PT Pembangunan Perumahan, and Hambalang sports complex, which implicated state-owned construction companies PT Adhi Karya and PT Wijaya Karya.
Adhi Karya and Wijaya Karya allegedly sub-contracted the Hambalang project to several private companies, including PT Dutasari Citralaras, in which Athiyyah Laila, the wife of Democratic Party chairman Anas Urbaningrum, once was commissioner.
Bambang Widjojanto, KPK deputy chairman for the prosecution unit, pledged that he would implicate Dutasari in the case. "We are also concentrating on the subcontracting problem," he said on the sidelines of the discussion.
At least seven SOE executives have been convicted in KPK cases, including Eddie Widiono Suwondho, former president director of state electricity company PT PLN; Washington Mampe Parulian Simanjuntak, former president director of state-owned gas company PT Perusahaan Gas Negara; Trijono, former general manager of PGN East Java; Djoko Pramono, former PGN director for general affairs and human resources; Gunawan Pranoto, former president director of state-owned pharmaceutical company PT Kimia Farma; Budiarto Maliang, former commissioner of PT Kimia Farma Trading and Distribution; and Ranendra Dangin, former financial director of state agribusiness firm PT Rajawali Nusantara Indonesia (RNI).
In December last year Eddie was sentenced to five years in prison for ordering the direct appointment of PT Netway Utama as bid winner in an outsourcing project between PLN and the company.
Eddie's order to directly appoint Netway without an appropriate bid to handle the 2004-2006 PLN procurement outsourcing project of a computerized customer information system (CIS-RISI) in Jakarta and Tangerang was proven to have caused Rp 46 billion in state losses.
As the longest-serving PLN president director, from 2001 until 2008, Eddie is known to have close ties with the inner-circles of former president Megawati Soekarnoputri and former vice president Jusuf Kalla.