Councilors urge municipality to abandon bartering system<\/p>\n
JAKARTA (JP): A commission of the city council has urged the
\nmunicipality to save its assets by no longer using the barter
\nprocess to get new facilities.<\/p>\n
The head of the council's commission C for financial affairs,
\nHelmy AR Syihab, said that the practice should be avoided because
\nthe municipality will eventually lose all its assets.<\/p>\n
\"The city administration tends to choose bartering to get new
\nfacilities rather than other ways and this must be stopped once
\nand for all,\" he said.<\/p>\n
Bartering, known as ruislag, is a type of cooperation in which
\na private company provides a plot of land and builds new
\nfacilities and in return the company gets the plot where the old
\nfacilities stand.<\/p>\n
Helmy said the municipality should not repeat a process such
\nas the Cililitan bus terminal barter project in which a private
\ncompany got the land of the terminal and in return the city got a
\nnew bus terminal in Kampung Rambutan, East Jakarta.<\/p>\n
He said the municipality should choose another method of
\ncooperation with private companies if the city budget is
\ninadequate to finance the development of new terminals.<\/p>\n
\"The municipality should implement the kind of cooperation
\nscheme that is used at the Blok M bus terminal in South Jakarta,\"
\nhe said.<\/p>\n
At Blok M the administration implemented a build-operate-
\ntransfer (BOT) cooperation program with a private company in
\nwhich the company built the new terminal and operates the
\nproperty located under the terminal for a given period of time.<\/p>\n
But the administration still owns the land because all of the
\nproperty will be returned to the municipality at the end of the
\ncontract period, he said.<\/p>\n
Helmy said that at the Pulogadung bus terminal the
\nmunicipality should choose BOT cooperation rather than the barter
\nsystem.<\/p>\n
\"It is time to relocate the terminal and it will be wise if
\nthe municipality prefers BOT cooperation to the barter system,\"
\nhe said.<\/p>\n
The city administration plans to barter Pulogadung terminal
\nwith a private company, PT Rodial Eron, to get a new terminal in
\nPulogebang.<\/p>\n
The deal was signed in 1990 but the development has been
\ndelayed due to various problems such as the width of the new
\nterminal and the completion of the environment impact report.<\/p>\n
The city land transport control agency demanded the company
\nprovide a larger area for the new terminal because, according to
\na regulation, the standard size of bus terminals should be 10
\nhectares.<\/p>\n
The company rejected the demand because the agreement
\nstipulates that it was only required to provide 7.1 hectares of
\nland.<\/p>\n
The Pulogadung bus terminal area covers 3.5 hectares of land.<\/p>\n
The delay has caused the cost of the terminal's construction
\nto soar from Rp 7 billion to Rp 13 billion.<\/p>\n
More than 1,000 city buses and 750 inter city buses use the
\nterminal every day. (yns)<\/p>",
"url": "https:\/\/jawawa.id\/newsitem\/councilors-urge-municipality-to-abandon-bartering-system-1447893297",
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