State-Owned Enterprises Dominated Indonesia's Largest Infrastructure Projects in 2020

In 2020, the Indonesian government opened approximately 36,800 infrastructure project tenders with a total value of Rp180.07 trillion. The tenders with the highest contract values were predominantly won by State-Owned Enterprises (SOEs).

This was revealed by Indonesia Corruption Watch (ICW) in its report titled *Indonesia and Infrastructure Tenders 2020*, released on June 1, 2022.

ICW revealed that 4 out of the top 10 infrastructure providers or vendors contracted in 2020 were SOEs. Nine out of the 10 vendors with the highest contract values were also SOEs.

"This means that in Indonesia, SOEs dominated the largest contracts nationwide in 2020," ICW stated in its report.

In this report, ICW analyzed data on infrastructure project tenders recorded on the Opentender.net website. According to ICW, this site covers 100% of the data on government infrastructure project tenders funded using the State Budget (APBN). However, infrastructure projects funded through framework agreements or public-private partnerships are not included.

Based on data from Opentender.net, the following is a list of the top 10 vendors or winners of infrastructure project tenders with the highest contract values in 2020:

1. Sino Road and Bridge Group Co. Ltd: Rp4.58 trillion
2. PT Brantas Abipraya (Persero): Rp3.12 trillion
3. PT Pembangunan Perumahan Tbk (Persero): Rp2.72 trillion
4. PT Waskita Karya Tbk (Persero): Rp2.66 trillion
5. PT Adhi Karya Tbk (Persero): Rp2.41 trillion
6. PT Adhi Karya Tbk (Persero): Rp2.35 trillion
7. PT Nindya Karya Tbk (Persero): Rp2.07 trillion
8. PT Wijaya Karya Tbk (Persero): Rp1.66 trillion
9. PT Len Industri (Persero): Rp1.62 trillion
10. PT PP Tbk (Persero): Rp1.5 trillion

From the list above, only one tender winner is a private company, namely Sino Road and Bridge Group Co. Ltd. The rest are SOEs.

"In the infrastructure market, the majority of providers are SOEs. Administrative readiness during prequalification, the amount of assets owned used as collateral, and equipment are some of the reasons why SOEs win most public construction projects," explained ICW.

"The same trend of SOEs winning construction tenders has been consistently observed over the past 10 years (2011-2020), with half of the top 10 contracted providers being SOEs implicated in corruption cases," ICW continued.

According to ICW's observations, over the past 10 years, participants in national infrastructure tenders have generally been more numerous from SOEs than from the private sector.

"Although private construction companies exist, they are not competitors for SOEs. This also needs further investigation into why many large private construction companies do not participate in government tenders," ICW stated.

"Many private construction companies participate in tenders, but not at the level of SOEs. Those that are comparable to SOEs are reluctant to participate in tenders," they concluded.