Formula E Budget Reduced Because Bank Guarantee Has Been Withdrawn, But Now Where Is The Money?

DKI Jakarta Governor Anies Baswedan (Photo: @aniesbaswedan)

JAKARTA - The DKI Jakarta Provincial Government explained that the current budget disbursed by the APBD to organize Formula E has been reduced from Rp983 billion to Rp560 billion.

This is because DKI has withdrawn bank guarantee funds of Rp. 423 billion based on the results of re-negotiations between the DKI Provincial Government and Formula E Operation (FEO).

However, a member of Commission B of the DKI DPRD from the PDIP faction, Gilbert Simanjuntak, admitted that he was surprised. If the bank guarantee budget has been withdrawn, where are the funds?

"The bank guarantee was paid in 2019 and then withdrawn due to pressure from the DPRD. It is not known where the bank guarantee money is now, because it entered the DKI bank without being clearly stated in the 2020 APBD," Gilbert said in his statement, Thursday, September 30.

Therefore, Gilbert urged DKI Jakarta Governor Anies Baswedan to open a memorandum of understanding (MoU) between Formula E and Formula E Operation (FEO).

So far, said Gilbert, the DPRD has never received a copy of the MoU between the DKI Provincial Government and the Formula E license holder, both the initial MoU and the MoU resulting from re-negotiation.

"It's better to open an initial MoU and a negotiated MoU. Then open it from the 2021 commitment fee payment of £11 million and the recipient's account number. Including where the bank guarantee money is now," said Gilbert. Previously, the DKI Provincial Government also explained that it had withdrawn returned a number of bank guarantee funds worth Rp423 billion. This was agreed in a new agreement with Formula E Operation (FEO). So that the disbursed budget no longer reaches nearly Rp1 trillion.

As for the funds that have been paid, only the commitment fee payments in 2019 amounted to IDR 360 billion and the commitment fee in 2020 amounted to IDR 200 billion or a total of IDR 560 billion.

"The commitment fee is IDR 560 billion. In the latest cooperation agreement, there is no need for a bank guarantee to be made," wrote the statement from the DKI Provincial Government.