Staff Of Erick Thohir Responds To Prabowo's Disappointment Regarding The High Price Of SOEs To Work On Projects

Arya Sinutingga (Photo: Doc. VOI)

JAKARTA - The Ministry of State-Owned Enterprises (BUMN) accepts criticism submitted by Presidential Candidate (Capres) 02 Prabowo Subianto regarding the performance of state-owned companies. These companies are considered necessary to make improvements in order to be efficient.

This was conveyed by the Special Staff of the Minister of SOEs, Arya Sinulingga, when answering reporters' questions regarding Prabowo's disappointment with the performance of SOEs.

For your information, Prabowo said that state-owned companies often set a fairly high price in working on projects. In fact, at high prices, the work time is much longer than the private companies have to offer.

"It's true, we are fixing it. Yes, that's okay, we are fixing it. If it's not efficient, we will fix it," Arya told reporters at JCC, Jakarta, Monday, January 15.

Even so, Arya emphasized that many state-owned companies were efficient when working on projects, including government projects. In fact, SOEs also get tenders abroad.

There are also efficient ones. It is proven that they won the tender in the Philippines. They won their tender," he explained.

Previously, it was reported that Presidential Candidate (Capres) number 02, Prabowo Subianto, shared his experience dealing with state-owned enterprises (BUMN) when managing the construction of several projects. According to him, state-owned companies often set quite high prices.

He expressed this in front of entrepreneurs in the Presidential Candidate Dialogue 02 Prabowo Subianto with the Indonesian Chamber of Commerce and Industry (Kadin), at the Djakarta Theater, Friday, January 12.

Initially, Prabowo said that he as Minister of Defense was building a hospital and also a military campus. He also contacted the state-owned company to work on the project.

However, Prabowo admitted that he was surprised by the price offered by state-owned companies. According to him, the figure is too high.

"I built a campus, my flagship school is building only 3 new campuses this year, the plan is for all 8 campuses and the first one I invite is BUMN, I don't mention which SOEs, it won't be good. He gave a very high budget," said Prabowo.

"Even though I've also been in the business government before, so I kind of understand a little bit, how come this is really expensive," he continued

Prabowo also made a comparison. He admitted that contacting the private sector and the price offered was much different from that of SOEs. In fact, Prabowo said the work time was faster than the SOEs offered.

"I want to give it to SOEs, just how much longer it takes, the price is high, I give it to the private sector. I will appoint the private sector, so that's the goods. I think the hospital, military hospital, is the largest in Southeast Asia. 1,000 beds, 136 ICUs, 26 floors, what is being carried out are the private sector," he said.