Govt still awaiting legal opinion from PLN before re-tendering GITET projects
Saturday, December 2 2000 - 04:00 AM WIB
The government is still awaiting legal opinion from state electricity firm PT PLN's legal advisors over the government's plan to re-tender high voltage electricity relay stations (GITET) in Tasikmalaya, West Java, and Kediri, East Java, whose values are allegedly being marked up.
Minister of Energy and Mineral Resources Purnomo Yusgiantoro said the government would rather avoid legal actions taken by the investors of the two GITET projects before embarking on any re-tendering of the projects.
"The government does not want a legal suit by Bukaka against PLN over Klaten (Central Java)-Tasikmalaya transmission network to re-occur. If that happens, it could create a bad impression for countries that provide export credits to the two GITET projects," Purnomo said.
A consortium of investors led by Bukaka has filed a lawsuit against the government at the Jakarta Administrative Court because of the government's arbitrary decision to cancel the Klaten-Tasikmalaya transmission project that was won by Bukaka.
"We are currently waiting for legal opinion from PLN's legal advisors. Whether we will cancel the contracts of the GITET projects and re-tender them, it all depend on legal opinion from PLN's legal advisors. The government must be more careful about this," he said.
The Keppres 133/2000 team, established by the government to restructure electricity company PT PLN, decided on Wednesday to re-tender all high-voltage electricity relay stations (GITET) projects phase III.
According to Indonesian Corruption Watch data, the before value-added-tax (VAT) value of Tasikmalaya Lot I relay station project reaches US$41.14 million and Rp 15.2 billion, or equivalent with Rp 386.92 billion, which is 283 percent higher than Depok III relay station project.
Tasikmalaya project was won by a consortium of PT Ritra Safitri, PT Citacontrac, and Siemens AG, and it would be financed by Kreditanstalt fur Wiederaufbau (KfW), Frakfurt am Main/Hermes of Germany.
Meanwhile, the before VAT value of Kediri Lot III relay station project reaches US$35.95 million and RP 17.51 billion, or equivalent with Rp 342.29 billion, or 250 percent higher than the Depok project.
The Kediri project was awarded to a consortium of PT Pembangunan Perumahan, PT Indokomas Buana Perkasa and Alsthom T&D, and would be financed by BNP Paribas, Credit Agricole Indosuez of France.
Meanwhile, the before VAT value of Depok III relay station project, won by a consortium of PT Multifab, Mitsubishi Electric and GEC Alsthom, reaches US$410,000, Rp 20 billion and 1.37 million yen, or equivalent with Rp 136.7 billion. (*)