Administration denies bribing Bekasi councilors<\/p>\n
JAKARTA (JP): The city administration denied on Wednesday it
\nbribed Bekasi councilors Rp 1 million (US$147) each to retract
\ntheir demand for the closure of the 108-hectare Bantar Gebang
\ndump site in Bekasi.<\/p>\n
City Secretary Fauzi Bowo said the administration had not
\ngiven any money to the 17 Bekasi councilors, who are members of a
\nfeasibility study team on garbage management.<\/p>\n
"We have not spent the city administration's money on such a
\nthing," Fauzi said.<\/p>\n
He revealed, however, that the money might have come from the
\ncity's sanitary agency.<\/p>\n
" The sanitary agency has its own budget for operational
\nexpenditures. We'll seek verification on the alleged bribery with
\nthe sanitary agency," he said.<\/p>\n
Last month the 17 councilors visited a garbage dump site in
\nSurabaya, East Java, for a comparative study on garbage
\nmanagement.<\/p>\n
It is alleged that during the visit a Bekasi mayoralty
\nofficial left envelopes containing money in the councilors' hotel
\nrooms.<\/p>\n
Some of the councilors returned the money when they knew that
\nthe money was from the city administration. Bekasi mayor Nonon
\nSonthanie reportedly asked Jakarta Governor Sutiyoso to finance
\nthe councilors' trip to Surabaya.<\/p>\n
Bekasi councilors earlier asked the city administration to
\nclose the dump, saying that it had polluted the air and water
\nleading to health problems such as respiratory diseases and skin
\ninfections. In the meeting between the 17 councilors and the
\nJakarta administration on Sept. 30, the administration agreed to
\nclose the dump from next month.<\/p>\n
But the Jakarta administration appears likely to cancel the
\nplan after learning that the development of a substitute garbage
\ndump site in Ciangir, Tangerang, was not feasible.<\/p>\n
"It will only move the same problem from Bekasi to Tangerang,"
\nGovernor Sutiyoso said last month.<\/p>\n
The Jakarta administration then decided to allocate Rp 10
\nbillion for renovations at the Bantar Gebang dump site, which has
\nbeen designed to accommodate Jakarta's 23,000 cubic meters of
\ngarbage per day until 2004.<\/p>\n
Meanwhile, Jakarta councilor Tjuk Sudono of the National
\nMandate Party (PAN) regretted "the bribery" if it really had
\nhappened.<\/p>\n
"In such an era of transparency, unclear allocation of the
\ncity's budget should not be tolerated anymore," Tjuk, who is a
\nmember of the city council's commission D for development
\naffairs, said on Wednesday.<\/p>\n
He said the council suspected that the city administration had
\n"marked up" the budget for the Rp 10 billion spending allocated
\nfor the repair of the garbage dump.<\/p>\n
"It should not that large. We'll ask the city administration
\nfor a clarification," he said.<\/p>\n
In a related development, the city administration is
\nconsidering dumping garbage in areas designated as sites for a
\nreclamation project in North Jakarta, the city's Development
\nPlanning Board head Bambang Sungkono said on Wednesday.<\/p>\n
"Several developed countries, such as Japan, have used their
\ngarbage for reclamation," Bambang said.<\/p>\n
He said several city officials would soon leave for Japan for
\na feasibility study. (jun)<\/p>",
"url": "https:\/\/jawawa.id\/newsitem\/administration-denies-bribing-bekasi-councilors-1447893297",
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