No KKN practices in Bukaka contract: Bambang
Wednesday, June 28 2000 - 03:00 AM WIB
Minister of Mines and Eenergy Susilo Bambang Yudhoyono has acknowledged that his ministry has found no signs of KKN, the local acronyms for corruption, collusion and nepotism in the awarding of a contract to Bukaka Teknik Utama, Kompas reported on Wednesday.
Speaking at a hearing with the VIII of the House of Representatives on Tuesday, the minister said that the investigation carried by the ministry's team only found that the company did not meet the technical and financial requirement when bidding the contract.
"But we did not recommend the suspension of the company's contract despite such a shortfall," he told the hearing. "We only asked the coordinating minister for finance and trade to take an important step if the company is allowed to carry out the power project."
Bambang said that the suspension of the contract and the decision to retender the project was solely made by Coordinating Minister of Trade and Finance Kwik Kian Gie as the chairman of the special team for the supervision and control of government's large scale projects.
The minister denied that the investigation into the alleged regularities in the awarding of the contract to Bukaka, which is owned by former minister of trade and industry Jusuf Kalla, was intended to justify the President's move to suspend the contract. "There was a political agenda behind the investigation," he said.
The government recently cancelled the contract awarded to PT Bukaka Teknik Utama to develop the US$75 million power transmission network between Klaten in Central Java and Tasikmalaya, West Java, due to alleged KKN practices in the obtaining the contract.
Kalla, who was dismissed from Gus Dur's cabinet due to alleged KKN practices in the power project, denied the KKN charges.
Kalla accused the government's move to annul his company's contract was made to pave the way for Gus Dur's crony to take over the project. He said that a close friend of Gus Dur, Harold Jansen had intensively lobbied PLN to cut the contract awarded to his company. The man, who according to the press paid the expense for the President's eyes operations in the United States, wanted the government and PLN to name ABB consortium to replace Bukaka in the project. (*)