City Officials Jailed for TransJakarta Bus Procurement Graft

Jakarta Globe, Erwin Sihombing, Mar 06, 2015

Newly purchased TransJakarta buses at a depot in Jakarta. Many of the
 ostensibly new vehicles, imported from China, were found to be faulty,
prompting a corruption probe. (Antara Photo/Dhoni Setiawan)

Jakarta. A Jakarta court has convicted and sentenced two former city officials to up to five years in prison for their roles in the corruption-riddled procurement of buses from China.

The Jakarta Anti-Corruption Court on Friday sentenced Drajad Adhyaksa, the former secretary of the Jakarta Transportation Office, to five years in jail, and Setyo Tuhu, the head of a committee in charge of appointing suppliers of buses for the TransJakarta network, to four years.

Both men were also fined Rp 250 million ($19,250).

The sentences were more lenient than the 10 years that prosecutors had sought for Drajad and nine years for Setyo.

The judges cited as mitigating factors its argument that the pair, both of whom were heavily involved in the procurement process, “did not enjoy” the Rp 54 billion embezzled from the project.

The pair did, however, conspire to rig the tender, awarding to transportation firms Ifani Dewi, Korindo Motors and New Armada Group the contract to procure buses from Chinese manufacturer Zhongtong.

The Rp 1.5 trillion procurement project was meant to boost the capacity of the city’s TransJakarta bus network, popularly known as the busway.

However, many of the buses delivered to TransJakarta were subsequently found unfit for use. Among the faults discovered among the ostensibly brand-new vehicles were broken and missing components, rusted frames, substandard parts, and, it later transpired, a tendency for fires to break out in the engine bay.

Udar Pristono, the transportation office chief at the time of the procurement, is due to stand trial soon in the same case. The Attorney General’s Office has also charged him in a similar case in 2012, when the city purchased articulated buses worth Rp 150 billion. The buses, the AGO alleges, did not meet the specified standards.

The AGO has also confiscated several assets under Udar’s name, which has thrown his sizeable personal fortune into the spotlight.

Among the properties seized are four condominium units at the Aston Bogor tower, south of Jakarta.

AGO officials have also confiscated a house at the Bogor Nirwana Residence estate as well as another in Bintaro Jaya.

Udar also owns two apartment units in Kuningan, South Jakarta, and another in Bali.

Udar is currently awaiting trial. He tried last month to have the charges against him dropped through a pretrial motion, but the court denied his motion.