¿Qué Pasa, Waskita Karya ?

Almost all people who are dealing with construction business know Waskita Karya. It is a name of a well-know state owned contractor. In Indonesia’s construction business they are one of the top 10. The company which found on 1961 has experiences in building skyscrapers. The BNI tower which is the highest building in Jakarta marked their achievement. Big projects like bridge which are connecting islands in Batam was done successfully. Successes in housings are the same as mentioned previously. In short Waskita Karya (WK) is a highly regarded and reliable contractor company.

But what is going on in Aceh? Kuntoro, the head of BRR slammed WK down. With his order he blacklisted WK. The decree which issued yesterday is refrained WK to have a job in Aceh for 2 years. Everybody who knows WK, like me, was surprised. ¿Qué Pasa. What was happened?

Last year WK won a contract for 1,050 houses from Turkish Red Crescent Society. The project is in Kemukiman Lampuuk, Aceh Besar and Desa Bitai, Banda Aceh. I believe because of WK excellent track record, they entrusted the 90.3 billion Rupiah project. But last December in the commemoration of 1 Year Tsunami, the leading light of WK turns to grow fainter. None of the house was completed.

What was happened to WK can be happen to any contractors or NGOs. So these are the lessons learnt:
1. Renew the mind set. If we go to do the reconstruction work we have to change our mind set. The mentality from doing business in the normal area to the state of mind of working in disaster area. We have to live by our own. We have to have a strong system to protect our values and mission. We have to prepare our mind to well-perform in the place with no bank, no internet connection, no cellular network, no electricity, no medical support and sometimes no food. In short there is no business at usual. I think WK still in the mind set of normal condition area.
2. Be careful when budgeting. Providing all by our self may costly. Meanwhile along the process the costs may soars. When WK sub-contracted the project with 68 million Rupiah, they thought the cost is sufficient until the project completion. They may surprise with the skyrocketing price for more than 40% of construction materials.
3. Transparency and equality. We have to treat equal to all sub-contractors. WK gave the job to PT Almahdali with 82 million Rupiah per-unit. But WK gave the same job to 6 local contractors with 68 million Rupiah per-unit. At the end of the day, the 6 local contractors asking for a rise until 80 million Rupiah unless they stop the work.
4. Be clear in the contract document. There were dispute between WK and the 6 sub-contractors. They were mentioned did not know about the material specification, so they asking for the rise. The local contractors said, they just knew the material just did not fit with the specification in the middle of the work. I don’t know this is true or not, but with the clear in contract document the dispute may be minimized.
5. Give the sub-contractor job in staggered. Do not award the contractor just in one shot. This is the disaster area, everyone may experiencing failure. If we give big number of money for down payment to our subcontractor, it is difficult to withdraw when they failed. Release the job or in package is a better solution. In this case WK awarded Alhmahdali 315 houses, but none the house was completed.
6. Be careful of 2 tier work. If we have to give our work to sub-contractor, be careful that the sub-contractor is just looking for fee. Obviously WK them self is looking for fee. GeRAK anticorruption watch mentioned, with this sub-contracting scheme, WK gains 18.9 billion Rupiah.

Arwin Soelaksono - Disaster Response & reConstruction

Construction material price soars

This is the day when the construction material vendors are the KINGs.

Since last month, the construction works amongst the implementing agencies have been on fire. Everyone in Aceh reconstruction is like a participant in the racetrack. All of us are working hard, to complete the work on time. All agencies who work in the reconstruction are craving for construction materials. Timbers, cement, steel rebar, zinc roofing and bricks go through the economic law. The construction material production is not fast enough as the speed of construction. Scarcity of bricks, cement and other material has started to happen. The price goes up with no one to prevent it.

One brick before tsunami which was IDR 300 but nowadays it is IDR 700 each. Even though, it was easily sold out. Payment should be in hard cash. Just like in the stock market, every hour and even every minute, the vendor can change the price. The vendor will give to the best bidder who comes to them with the highest price and with enough money in their pocket.

The nightmare is not over yet. The quality of the brick is poor. Generally, the brick burned within 3 days, to reach its strength. But because the buyer is already in front of their gate, they just burn it in 2 days.

This is too much and has to be stopped. There are 3 things we have to do to end this madness.

First, just stop the work. Stop and watch. We should not have allowed someone to take advantage of making a fool upon us by playing the price. If we follow their game, the price will continue to skyrocket. If other agencies are still willing to dance to their rhythm, let them, it won’t be long; they will be short of cash soon.

Second, we have to buy materials outside Aceh region. We must even pay the transportation cost; the price is still lower compared to the local supplier. And still, we will get better quality bricks.

Third, we produce construction material by ourselves. We just need to find enough space to build our factory and the quarry for material. We can enhance the quality of life of the local people to work with us.

The first idea might be the easiest and the last suggestion is to idealistic. But if we just do one of them, the kings will wake up and smell the coffee.

Arwin Soelaksono - Disaster Response & reConstruction

West Coast adventure

Kabupaten Aceh Jaya - West Coast - November 2005, the final frontier. These are pictures of the Habitat For Humanity Indonesia - Tsunami
Disaster Response team in a place called Gunung Mancang. It's a humanitarian mission, to help the tsunami victim to have a decent house to live. At that time, Gunung Mancang was where no man wanted to go.


Gunung Mancang is an area in the West Coast Aceh, it is between Kuede Patek to Lhok Kruet. It is on the way from Meulaboh to Banda Aceh.

It was a devastated area. The roads and bridges were wiped out by the tsunami. To transport materials and workers, we have to go there, though.

I went here at November 30, 2005. From Kuede Patek to Lhok Kruet, which should have been in one hour with 4x4 vehicles, I took 24 hours plus 7 minutes.

Arwin Soelaksono - Disaster Response & reConstruction

Bailey bridge on the Road between Calang and Rigah is about to collapse

If you were in Rigaih (our West Coast office was there), you know how horrendous it was passing this bridge. Every day more than 10 times, our cars cross it to Calang, back and forth. The big question mark is. Can we use this bridge to bring our material? We have a similar condition on the bridge near Lhok Kruet. It means delivering material from Banda Aceh either from Meulaboh to West Coast will be delayed, waiting for the bridge to be repaired.


Email from Joerg Meier, Head of Aceh Jaya Field Office, Office of the United Nations Recovery Coordinator for Aceh and Nias (UNORC). In his email, he wrote: according to a CRS engineer assessment, the damaged Bailey bridge on the Road between Calang and Rigah is about to collapse any time. Please pay extreme caution when crossing the section (picture attached). CRS is looking into improvement but currently still waiting for heavy equipment and spare parts.


Arwin Soelaksono - Disaster Response & reConstruction

First day in Aceh

As my aircraft landed at Sultan Iskandar Muda Airport in Banda Aceh at 04.50 PM local time, this is my first day*) in Aceh. I will be joining Habitat for Humanity for one year. My assignment is for Operations Manager for Habitat for Humanity Indonesia (HFHI)for Aceh Tsunami Disaster Response Project. I will be in charge of all their service area. And that will be in Banda Aceh, Sigli, Meulaboh and West Coast. HFHI planned to build 10.000 houses in those areas.

There is a huge opportunity and responsibility. Hopefully, with the help of God, I will be able to accomplish the job.

Arwin Soelaksono

*) Actually, my first visit to Aceh was on August 9, 2005. I came as a volunteer for HFHI. I conducted site visits in the tsunami-affected area in Banda Aceh and provided project management advice to HFHI field management.