5,400 city assets undocumented
Bambang Nurbianto, The Jakarta Post, Jakarta
The city administration is only able to show title documents for some 2,600 of its total number of 8,000 properties worth Rp 74 trillion (US$8.7 billion), causing fears that it might lose more assets if it fails to obtain the necessary documents, an official said.
City Assets Bureau director Rama Budhi said on Wednesday that the city assets under the control of his bureau included office and school buildings, public parks, hospitals and other land and buildings managed or rented by the private sector or foundations.
According to Rama, the assets also included lands and buildings taken over at the end of the colonial era and land handed over by developers, who are required to donate about 20 percent of the land area of developments to the city administration for the building of public facilities.
"We will document the assets. Our target is that every year between 200 to 300 of the assets will get title documents," Rama told the press on the sidelines of a City Council plenary meeting to review the 2002 city budget.
Previously, the secretary to the council's Commission B for economic affairs, Dani Anwar, said that properties managed or rented by the private sector could be lost as the administration had no title documents for many of them.
Assets currently being rented by the private sector included the Batu Tulis Putih and Pradidipta shop buildings, and the Tastra Jaya and Aloca complexes.
Besides the properties, there were also companies that were jointly managed with private firms. These firms included PT. Langgeng Ayom Lestari, Sapta Nawawi, Bhakti foundation, PT Duta Pertiwi, PT Bakri Investindo, PT Jaya Real Property, PT Rointa Ekajaya, PT Dharma Alumas Sakti, and PT Kempas Indah Indonesia.
Rama admitted there were also a number of assets which were in disputed as between private companies and the city administration, but the number was not significant.
"We have assets that are in dispute with third parties, but the number is not significant compared to the total assets owned by the city," he added.
During the plenary session, a number of factions on the City Council asked the city administration to tackle the problem of assets seriously.
"The city administration should pay serious attention to the problem of assets. The lose of these properties would show us just how poor city management is," said Indonesian Democratic Party of Straggle (PDI Perjuangan) faction spokesman, Sayogo Hendrosubroto.
Similar comments were made by the spokesman for the United Development Party faction, Ali Imran Husein, who demanded that the city administration secure the future of such assets by drafting a bylaw on city assets.
The National Mandate Party (PAN) faction spokesman Suyatno also mentioned that some property developers had not yet handed over land to the city administration for the building of public facilities.
He said that the city administration should ask the developers to comply with the regulations.