PDI-P's Confusion To See Formula E Circuit Construction Budget Swelling

Gembong Warsono/Photo: VOI

JAKARTA - The cost of constructing the Formula E circuit has swelled. BUMD PT Jakarta Propertindo added a budget of IDR 10 billion to PT Jaya Konstruksi, which is working on the construction of the track.

This cost is budgeted from Jakpro company funds. Now, the cost of constructing the Formula E circuit is IDR 60 billion from the previous IDR 50 billion. This is due to additional work that is not included in the predictions of Jakpro and Jaya Konstruksi, namely hardening the soil which is still soft.

The chairman of the PDIP faction of the DKI DPRD, Gembong Warsono, admitted that he couldn't understand the budget swelling for the Formula E circuit. Gembong wondered why the cost of constructing an electric car racing track could swell beyond the initial prediction.

"I'm not just confused anymore, but dizzy," said Gembong when contacted, Monday, March 7.

Although the construction of the circuit uses the company's budget, Jakpro is still a company owned by the DKI Provincial Government. In which, their company's capital investment is taken from the DKI Regional Budget.

Gembong emphasized that Jakpro should be able to run the company to gain profit for the DKI Provincial Government.

"What Jakpro uses are funds from the people of Jakarta. That's the problem. Jakpro has money based on what the DKI Jakarta Provincial Government has given through capital participation, right," said Gembong.

"This means, Jakpro was ordered by the DKI Government to look for money to make a profit. Well, it's not good to just stop. But this all happened because Jakpro was forced to know about issues that he didn't know about," he continued.

Furthermore, Gembong views the increasing cost of the circuit, indicating that the tender contract for the construction is fake.

"There was an initial agreement on the contract, what was the initial agreement? How come suddenly on the way once it was done there was an unreasonable cost overrun," said Gembong.

In fact, according to Gembong, if the amount of the cost has been stated in the contract, then the cultivating company must be prepared to bear all risks, including the consequences of rising construction costs.

"When there are additional costs, yes there are consequences, there are additional costs. If you want it like that, yes, a new contract because it is not in accordance with the first contract," said Gembong.

From this incident, Gembong became increasingly suspicious that the tender process for the electric car racing track had been planned.

This starts from the failed tender in the first procurement, then the tender is repeated again. Then, the winner of the tender is Jaya Konstruksi, which is a subsidiary of the DKI BUMD.

"If you add another 10 billion rupiah, it's called collusion. Right from the start, I suspected that the determination of the winner was aimed at Jakon (Jaya Konstruksi), that's already suspicious," he said.