Double-Track Project Advances amid Bribery Allegation

TEMPO.CO, Jakarta - Transportation Minister E.E. Mangindaan said that the bribery allegation against a number of ministry officials will not interfere with Kroya-Kutoarjo double-track project. The construction of the 76-kilometer railway will continue move ahead.

Mangindaan said the bribery issue was deliberately posed by Japanese media, The Japan Times, because, until now there has been no official reports from either the Japanese government or the Japan International Corporation Agency (JICA). "If it is not official, who knows whether [the report] is true?" he says.

On March24, The Japan Times reported that seven officials in the Inspectorate general had received bribes from Japan Transportation Consultants, Inc (JTC) to kickback three double-track projects in the Java Southern Cross. The Japanese consulting firm was also accused of having paid officials in Vietnam and Uzbekistan to win Japanese government's Official Development Assistance (ODA) projects.

At the end of last week, Tempo source said that the JICA and the Japanese government have filed the report on the bribery allegations to the Indonesian Transportation Ministry. The sources said that JTC, the consultant for the double-track railway construction in Cirebon-Kroya and Kroya-Kutoarjo, paid a total of Rp2.5 billion to seven ministry officials in 2010-2014.

Mangindaan said he has not made any plan to involve the authorities to investigate the allegation. He said that he is still waiting for the investigation results from the Inspectorate General.

Herman Dwi Atmoko, director general of railways at the Transportation Ministry, said the Kroja-Kutoarjo project is scheduled for completion in 2017. "It has entered the stage of contract negotiations with JICA," he said.

KHAIRUL ANAM