Extortion At Ferry Port Deri Flores Timur, Ombudsman Asks Local Government To Intervene

A logistics truck got out of the ferry that docked at Ferry Waijarang Port, Lembata Regency, NTT. (ANTARA)

The Indonesian Ombudsman Representative of East Nusa Tenggara Province received complaints from residents regarding the practice of charging goods or logistics trucks by workers at Ferry Deri Port, Adonara Island, East Flores Regency.

"Residents have complained that their expedition trucks that are about to disembark at Ferry Deri Port are subject to a certain amount of money levy by workers at the port," said Head of the Indonesian Ombudsman Representative of NTT Province Darius Beda Daton, he said in Kupang, Thursday.

He said the residents of the truck owners protested because their expedition trucks did not unload goods at the port, but immediately took them to service users in various villages on Adonara Island.

Different Daton said that levies by unscrupulous workers were burdensome for vehicle owners because they had spent the cost of crossing using ferries that had gone up to Rp3.5 million from the previous Rp1.8 million.

He said, following up on the complaint, and had coordinated with the Land Transportation Management Center for Region XIII NTT in Kupang and the East Flores Regency Transportation Service as the manager of Ferry Deri Port to facilitate its completion.

"Of course, this issue needs to be resolved by the authorities so as not to cause social problems that interfere with port services," he said.

Furthermore, Beda Daton explained that Ferry Deri Port is a feeder port whose main function is to serve limited amounts of sea transportation transfer activities.

The port is a feeder for major ports and collection ports, and as a destination for passengers or goods, as well as crossing transportation with a range of services in the province.

Ferry Deri Port, he said, is not the main port of commercial which requires that every loading and unloading service for goods from and to ships be carried out by loading and unloading workers (TKBM) who are given permits and subject to tariffs according to the services provided, as stipulated in the Regulation of the Minister of Transportation Number 152 of 2016 concerning the Implementation and Concession of Unloading Goods and Ships.

"Therefore, expedition trucks that do not unload at the port do not need to be charged in any form," he said.

Different Daton added, if loading and unloading is carried out at the port, the amount of service rates for loading and unloading goods from and to the ship is determined on the basis of a mutual agreement between service providers and service users based on the type and structure of goods.

"We hope that the problem will be handled properly so that the cost of the logistics supply chain to and from Adonara Island can be cut, the benefits of which are also for the community in the local area," he said.