70 percent of city assets lack proper title documents

Damar Harsanto, Jakarta

Nearly all 12 factions on the City Council have criticized the city administration's poor recording and documenting of city assets, which could lead to the loss of assets or their transfer to unauthorized parties.

"Only 30 percent of city assets in the form of land and buildings have proper ownership certificates. The remaining 70 percent, unfortunately, do not have proper documents," said Khudri Hasbullah of the United Development Party (PPP) faction on Wednesday during an overview hearing to discuss the draft of a new bylaw on city asset maintenance.

He said that the poor documentation of assets worth a total of Rp 75 trillion (US$8.31 billion) could in the future put the administration in a weak legal position as regards the ownership of these assets. Should this happen, the administration could find itself in danger of losing them.

Ahmad Heryawan of the Justice Party (PK) faction said he was concerned that the administration had a poor inventory system, and failed to properly maintain its properties.

"Officials in city agencies often fail to coordinate among themselves on the maintenance and administration of these assets. They also often produce incomplete documents and records," he said.

Councillor Ishak Iskandar of the Indonesian Democratic Party of Struggle (PDI-P) faction said that the administration ignored the existence of lands and buildings as it did not include the properties in the city budget.

"Those assets should be included in the city budget ... they are inseparable from the financial status of the city," he said.

City assets agency head Rama Boedi confirmed that many city assets lacked ownership certificates.

"Of around 13,000 assets comprising lands and buildings, only some 3,000 of them have the proper documents," he told The Jakarta Post.

The agency has prioritized the obtaining of certificates for between 400 and 1,000 city assets per year, especially for lands and buildings located in strategic places.

Among the assets for which the process of obtaining certificates has been underway since 2003 are state high school buildings throughout the city.

Rama also brushed aside allegations that his subordinates were responsible for the poor documentation and recording of properties, shifting the blame to unclear asset transfer procedures in the past.

"Many assets have been transferred to us by now-defunct institutions, like the Ministry of National Education's provincial office, without complete documentation," he asserted.

"We are cooperating with the National Land Agency (BPN) and other relevant government offices to improve the documentation of those lucrative assets," he added.

Rama claimed that the administration found it difficult to resolve certification problems due to financial constraints.

Governor Sutiyoso, however, said that the administration would arrange the certificates so as to avoid losing the assets in possible disputes with third parties.

He also pointed out that the administration only had Gubernatorial Decree No. 25/1999, referring to Ministerial Decree No. 7/1997 on provincial asset management, as a legal basis on which to act.

Since the decrees were not considered strong enough, the administration had submitted the draft of a new bylaw on city assets.