BRR Points Way to Clean Dealing

The Jakarta Globe, Nivell Rayda, February 7, 2009 

The Aceh-Nias Reconstruction and Rehabilitation Agency, or BRR, announced on Thursday that a total of 129 companies previously engaged in local reconstruction projects had been blacklisted by the agency over the past four years. 

BRR head Kuntoro Mangkusubroto said his agency found that some of the companies won their contracts by bribing local officials, while others had performed poorly and appeared unable to deliver on the terms of their contracts. 

The blacklisting, he said, was based on public complaints. 

“So far, we have received 913 complaints involving 470 government reconstruction projects,” Kuntoro said, adding that 27 cases later ended in convictions, while the rest were still being investigated by police. 

Sixty percent of the companies were involved in housing projects for people who lost their homes in the 2004 tsunami, while the rest dealt with infrastructure and economic-facility projects. 

“This is how we prevented corruption in the reconstruction projects,” Kuntoro said. “We had to show contractors we meant business in fighting corruption.” 

The former energy and mineral resources minister distanced the BRR’s central office from the irregularities. “The transactions in question happened between BRR’s local work units and contractors and suppliers,” he said. 

Kuntoro said that unlike a number of other agencies and ministries, the BRR automatically revoked the questionable tenders and opened fresh bids as soon as irregularities were uncovered. The rapid termination of the contracts helped prevent more than Rp 715 billion ($61.5 million) in potential losses to the state, he said. 

In contrast, the Ministry of Transportation decided to go ahead with the purchase of 20 patrol boats, even after five companies had admitted to the Anti-Corruption Court earlier this year that they had bribed a lawmaker to win the bid. 

The Ministry of Forestry, meanwhile, has yet to revoke logging permits awarded to 15 companies in Riau Province, despite the sentencing of Pelalawan district chief Tengku Azmun Jaafar to 11 years in prison last year for accepting bribes from the firms. 

The BRR was established by the government a few months after the Dec. 26, 2004, tsunami that devastated Aceh Province and Nias Island in North Sumatra, killing more than 167,000 people. 

A BRR office for Nias was set up shortly after an earthquake hit the island in March 2005. A total of 621 international NGOs involved in 1,633 projects have worked under the agency. 

The Supreme Audit Agency has given the BRR a clean bill of health, lauding it as one of the most transparent government institutions. 

The BRR is the first government agency to have its own autonomous anticorruption unit, which many say is a direct result of international pressure for transparency in the reconstruction projects. It manages about $3.8 billion in funds, most of which come from foreign donors, for reconstruction in Aceh and Nias. 

The Corruption Eradication Commission, or KPK, established a representative office in Aceh, the only one outside Jakarta, at the request of the BRR. 

Information about projects under the BRR and other organizations can be accessed through the agency’s Web site, http://rand.brr.go.id/RAND/. 

The BRR will disband when its mandate expires in April. Some fear the local government may revert to corruption in its absence.

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