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Jakarta’s vital yet much-maligned busway system has cost Jakarta taxpayers at least Rp 61 billion ($5.9 million) through corruption linked to the provision of buses used for four corridors in 2006, a leading antigraft watchdog claimed on Wednesday.

Indonesia Corruption Watch filed a complaint with the Corruption Eradication Commission (KPK) early on Wednesday alleging that the city busway operator, PT TransJakarta, appointed PT Jakarta Mega Trans and PT Jakarta Trans Metropolitan long before the Jakarta administration had approved the budget for corridors four to seven or announced its tendering process.

TransJakarta is owned by the city administration.

ICW researcher Febridiansyah said the two consortia cost the administration more than Rp 61 billion in losses through the inflation of the budget for the provision of the buses and inefficiency in managing the four corridors.

“Busway passengers and the city of Jakarta are the ones paying the price,” Febridiansyah said after submitting the complaint to the KPK.

The two consortia, which now manage the four corridors, were established by the city under former Governor Sutiyoso and consist of several bus operators that have experienced falling revenue since the busway began operations in 2004.

The ICW alleges that the formation of the consortia was done only to provide legitimacy to the procurement irregularities.

Officials from the busway operators were not available for comment on Wednesday.

Riza Hasyim, the deputy head of the City Transportation Agency, said it was TransJakarta’s job to manage and oversee the tender process.

Riza also claimed that TransJakarta had in fact conducted a tender process and had included the consortia in this.

He said he did not understand the corruption allegations.

“There was no direct appointment in those corridors because we had a tender process that was conducted fairly and transparently,” Riza said, stressing that the allegation was baseless.

Riza said the transportation agency only managed the fleet number policy and the route of each corridor.

Fauzi Bowo, Jakarta’s current governor, said on Wednesday that the city respected any claim from a group that felt the city’s auditing and monitoring were not properly conducted.

“Since the beginning [of the busway project], there have been people who were given responsibility for the project, and [if anything improper has occurred] sanctions will be applied to them,” Fauzi said.

He said the Jakarta authorities have applied an open management system to audit the performance of the busway operators.

“There’s nothing to worry about,” Fauzi said, adding that as governor, he was concerned about the performance of the TransJakarta busway system.

This is not the first corruption allegation linked to the provision of buses for the system.

In April 2007, the director of PT Armada Usaha Bersama, Budhi Susanto, was sentenced to five years in prison by the Anti-Corruption Court over the 2004 provision of buses for Corridor I, which connects Blok M and Kota. The court found that the state lost Rp 10.6 billion in that case.

Rustam Effendi, the city’s former transportation office chief, was sentenced to three years in prison for his role in the same case.