BUMN Karya Criticized By Ganjar For Throwing Tikar, This Is Erick Thohir's Response

SOE Minister Erick Thohir (Photo: dock. Antara)

JAKARTA - Minister of State-Owned Enterprises (BUMN) Erick Thohir responded to a statement by the Presidential Candidate (Readpres) Ganjar Pranowo, which alluded to the performance of state-owned construction companies being considered not optimal. In fact, it is also said that many have gone out of business.

Erick sees the criticism as a form of misinput so that the performance of SOEs, especially those engaged in the construction sector, can be even better in the future.

"And I'm sure that Mr. Ganjar's statement is not negative, Mr. Ganjar and I are close. But what he said was that in the future BUMN Karya had to be even better, agreed," he said when met at the Ministry of SOEs, Jakarta, Thursday, November 9.

Furthermore, Erick also admitted that he was open if there were criticisms or suggestions from other presidential candidates such as Prabowo Subianto or Anies Baswedan.

"This is what we are continuing to improve now, how the assignment on toll roads is now transparent, which ones are feasible, which ones are less feasible," he said.

Currently, continued Erick, he continues to focus on fixing all state-owned companies under the Ministry of SOEs. Improvements are made in terms of financial performance, as well as maintaining the sustainability of the company in the long term.

"And as a minister who has only served for four years, I am trying to continue to improve the existing BUMN-BUMN conditions," he said.

Previously, it was reported that presidential candidate Ganjar Pranowo highlighted the governance carried out by state-owned enterprises (BUMN) in the field of Karya. According to Ganjar, the governance carried out is not optimal, so it has the potential to burden state finances.

According to him, if you look at the Internal Rate of Return (IRR) or the return of capital from infrastructure development produced by BUMN Karya, it is very minimal. On the other hand, BUMN Karya often receives disbursement of State Equity Participation (PMN). This condition is considered burdensome for state finances.

Furthermore, Ganjar also mentioned the state-owned company in the work sector which eventually went out of business. He considered this because many expenditures in state projects were inefficient because there were people playing.

"Yes, how come, it's not governance, is it true? Hayoo, who plays there, hayoo, who has gone bankrupt, how come it's not governance," said Ganjar at the Indonesian Economist's 100th Sarasehan event, in Jakarta, Wednesday, November 8.

The former governor of Central Java said that BUMN Karya would not suffer any losses in working on an infrastructure project if the calculation was clear.

"If it's governance, we can measure it, I also have the data. So actually it needs to be prudent. But you know, I was a legislature, I was an executive, so I often believed, what we made was a success," he said.

"So why was the interconnection between cities and villages, infrastructure has been built, I'm talking about utilization. We are talking about quantity, yes, but the money (needs funds) is really big," he continued.