Authors: Narada Kumara, Aby Haryono
In the past six months, the frequency of accidents in Indonesia’s construction sector has significantly increased. We noted that from August 2017 to February 2018 there were at least 10 workplace accidents in public and private construction projects, most of which involved transportation infrastructure. Cause of accidents varies, from human error-related factors to violation of standard operating procedures and safety management systems.
In response to that, the Ministry of Public Works and Housing (“MPWH”) has halted 36 on-going elevated toll roads and railway projects, where recently 34 of them were allowed to resume by the end of February 2018 after the Construction Safety Committee (Komite Keselamatan Konstruksi or “KKK”) finalized safety audits upon them.
KKK may not sound familiar to us. It is a breakthrough made by the MPWH in order to enforce and enhance safety management compliance in construction projects within Indonesia. KKK was established on 24 January 2018 through the enactment of Minister of Public Works and Housing Regulation No. 02/PRT/M/2018 on Amendment to Regulation No. 05/PRT/M/2014 on Guidelines of Safety and Health Management System (SMK3) for Public Works Construction (“MPWHR 02/2018”) and Decree No. 66/KPTS/M/2018 on Construction Safety Committee (“Decree 66/2018”).
The establishment of KKK is mandated by Law No. 2 of 2017 on Construction Service (“Construction Service law”) which gives authority to the government to carry out supervision over the implementation of safety and health management systems and standards by construction service providers. Pursuant to MPWHR 02/2018 and Decree 66/2018, KKK is a unit under MPWH, consisting of three subcommittees, respectively related to road and bridge, water resources and building. KKK has the following duties:
- conduct monitoring and evaluation of potentially high-risk construction projects;
- conduct investigation upon construction accidents; and
- give advice and consideration to the MPWH, based on results of monitoring and evaluation, and/or investigation of a construction accident, in order to implement construction safety.
Based on MPWHR 02/2018 and Decree 66/2018, KKK has the authority to supervise and investigate construction-related public works (for the purpose of public interest, e.g. bridges, public facility buildings, drinking water supply system and piping, irrigation, dam, etc):
1) has high-risk potential; and/or
A public works construction is deemed to have “high-risk potential” if it is dangerous in nature and/or employs at least 100 workers and/or having value of more than Rp 100,000,000,000 (one hundred billion Rupiah).
2) experiencing construction accidents that cause/may cause death.
KKK also has authority over lower-risk construction projects that experiencing accidents causing death. However, please note that KKK’s authority is intended for the on-going construction project only, given that the KKK does not have the authority to investigate building failure at post-construction project stage.
KKK shall be authorized to evaluate whether or not a construction accident is caused by the violation of the standard operating procedure and safety and health management system by the construction service provider. In performing its duties, KKK shall have the authority to enter the construction site, request information and data from the relevant party and coordinate with another party related to construction safety.
Please note that although KKK does not have any authority to impose a sanction, KKK’s investigation results and recommendations can be used by MPWH to impose a sanction against the construction service provider. According to Article 96 of Construction Service Law, any construction service provider that violates the safety and health management system and standard can be imposed various sanctions, i.e. warning, fines, suspension of construction service activities, blacklisting, suspension of licenses and/or revocation of permits.
Based on the foregoing, we hope that the establishment and performance of the KKK can increase compliance in construction works safety of various infrastructure projects across Indonesia.
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