AGO to Reveal Suspected Corruption on BTS Construction Project

TEMPO.CO, Jakarta - The Indonesian Attorney General Office (AGO) is planning to reveal the suspected case of the Ministry of Telecommunication and Information's Base Transceiver Station (BTS) next week.

Head of Legal Information of the AGO Ketut Sumedana said that the AGO will release a full disclosure next week.

"Next week we will release everything. We will inform [the date]," Ketut said in a text message to Tempo on Friday, October 28, 2022.

Ketut did not provide further detail concerning the investigation that has been carried out by the AGO. Ketut only mentioned that many witnesses have been examined. "There are many witnesses [that have been examined]," Ketut said.

The ministry's BTS construction project has not shown any significant development despite the extension provided by the government by the end of last year. Back in 2021, the first phase of BTS construction project has been approved to be completed by March 2022. To prevent overshooting the deadline, the government disbursed the needed funds by the end of the 2021 budget year. As a requirement, the project contractors were asked to provide a guarantee bank.

Head of the Lastmile Backhaul Infrastructure Division Bakti Feriandi Mirza said that the BTS construction project outside the Papua region is being hindered by problems in the material supply chain sector and telecommunication equipment. During the Covid-19 pandemic, contractors are having difficulties in obtaining microchips from various countries, such as Cina.

"There is a shortage of microchips, this is a domino effect of Covid-19 because production is slowing down," Bakti said to Tempo on June 3, 2022.

However, hindrance outside the Papua region is different from the Papua region. In Papua, the construction of BTS by a consortium of companies consisting of Lintas Arta, Huawei, SEI and IBS and ZTE was hindered by security issues. Feriandi said that the police had even forced construction to be stopped because of the shooting of eight workers of the East Palapa Ring project.

"Also there are other events, smaller incidents in various areas in Papua. The point is, we do not want to put workers at risk," Bakti said.

Outside of Papua, the completion of BTS project handled by the Fiberhome consortium had received the public spotlight. Recently, the sub-contractor for the Fiberhome consortium, PT Semesta Energy Services (SES), locked down several towers in Natuna and NTT because they have not received payment.

On March 2022, SES completed 61.7 percent of the project. However, payment for the project had only been disbursed 35 percent. Bakti then summoned Fiberhome after the issues related to the payment reached the Ministry of Communication and Information.

Because of the missed deadline of the BTS construction, Fiberhome must pay dozens of billions of Rupiah to the government as a fine.

Head of Project Management Implementation Fiberhome Telkom Infra MTD Consortium, Wang Tao, said that the company continues to try to complete the BTS construction project. "The construction had reached 76 percent," Wang Tao said.

Wang Tao also mentioned that Fiberhome has strict rules on making payments to contractors and sub-contractors. "And we always paid on time for every due payment to Fiberhome supplier and sub-contractor," Wang Tao said.

Anang Latif said that the target for the 4G BTS construction for the delayed phase I and II, which is being constructed by Fiberhome, will be finished on October 2022. Meanwhile, the project included in phase III, which is constructed by Huawei consortium will be finished on July 2022 and phases IV and V constructed by IBS and ZTE consortium will be finished on December 2022. 

FRANCISCA CHRISTY ROSANA | VINDRY FLORENTIN | KHAIRUL ANAM

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