Heaptalk, Jakarta — GCG (Good Corporate Governance) is a principle that places importance on transparency with the goal of increasing stakeholder trust in the business ecosystem. This principle has been echoed in the BUMN environment and has become a requirement for corporate governance in Indonesia. However, there are still companies owned by state-owned enterprises that do not adhere to good GCG practices, namely PT Indonesia Comnets Plus (Icon+).
There is one thing that should be mentioned because Icon+ employs poor GCG practices. The PLN sister company was recently sued by one of its partners, PT Azet Surya Lestari (ASL), a national renewable energy and information technology company, on Tuesday, 5/10/2021, in the Commercial Court of the Central Jakarta District Court, on the reasons of debt payment obligations postponement.
Quoted from the release of ASL, Icon+ has never paid ASL as a vendor or subcontractor who has carried out the work of developing internet services access for remote villages in South Sulawesi Province and Papua Province – West Papua Province. The work contract expired in April 2017 and has been running for seven years.
In fact, Icon+ has not made any fulfillment of its obligations, even though in the Cooperation Agreement, ASL has finished every agreed scope of work.
“Our client’s contract is clear, the work has been completed, however, our client has not received full payment.” Marifat P. Koto, ASL’s lawyer, stated.
Possibility of jeopardizing Indonesia’s business ecosystem
Poor GCG implementation in this way can have a detrimental effect on Indonesia’s business ecosystem. The reason for this is that late payments and a lack of commitment on the part of state-owned corporations can slowly kill vendors hired to handle a variety of their projects.
This was also felt by ASL, which discovered that his project had not been paid for, putting the company’s operations and financials at risk. As a result, it has an effect on business performance as general where vendors are unable to pay for the expenses including the employee salary, operational expenses, and other costs.
According to Makrifat, Icon+’s lack of commitment causes its clients (ASL) to stumble. Numerous ASL employees were forced to resign. Not to mention debt arrears and other issues, which impact the personal finances of the employees’ daily expenses.
Meanwhile, many experts believe that unethical GCG practices could also precipitate a macroeconomic financial crisis. On the other hand, this can also erode the trust of the related business ecosystem in companies that fail to implement it properly, most notably the default in terms of payment failure to the vendor.
The obligation to implement GCG is governed by the law
In the case of Icon+, Makrifat believes that this is contradictory to the government’s advocacy for the BUMN’s operating principle, namely through the Decree of the State Minister for State-Owned Enterprises (Ministry of State-Owned Enterprises) No. Kep-117/M-MBU/2002, which states that every company must adhere to GCG principles.
These obligations include the requirement for SOEs to implement GCG consistently and/or to make it the operational basis for the State-Owned-Enterprises in question. The GCG principles enshrined within that decision are transparency, independence, accountability, and responsibility, as well as the principle of fairness.
“However, given what occurred in the Icon+ practice, it appeared as though GCG was merely a lip service,” Makrifat explained.
