Gapensi's head says he wins Total's tender

The lawyer representing the head of the Balikpapan chapter of the Association of Indonesian Construction Companies (Gapensi) said his client had won the tender for the construction of French oil and gas company Total Indonesie's office but Total had cancelled the project, Kaltim Post reported.

Lawyer Yusuf Mustafa said his client, Sappe, had suffered hundreds of millions of rupiahs in losses due to the cancellation of the project.

Earlier, Sappe said he would sue Total for canceling the project.

Total earlier said Total cancelled the project as part of belt-tightening measure to cope with the economic crisis and the cancellation was decided when the tender process was still in the phase of "opening the envelopes (bid proposals of the tender participants)". No decision had been made with regards the winner of the tender.

Yusuf however denied Total's statement., saying Sappe's company Meranti Indah had won the tender with the bid proposal of Rp 1.8 billion, beating two bidders. (*)