Advertising scams may drag down 30 city officials

JAKARTA (JP): Governor Sutiyoso has instructed the City Inspectorate Agency to investigate 30 city officials allegedly involved in corruption cases at the just-dissolved Outdoor Advertising Review Team (TPTPR).

"I have instructed the inspectorate agency to conduct the investigation. I have personally summoned a number of city officials concerning the matter, but a decision has yet to be made.

"We (the city administration) will always follow up on information or complaints from city residents, but we must proceed carefully," he told reporters after addressing the opening ceremony of the Governor's Cup National Wrestling Junior Championship at Ragunan Sports Stadium in South Jakarta on Saturday.

"We will take stern action against any officials who are proven to have been involved in such cases," he said.

Separately, City Inspector Hendarmin Ono Saleh said the inspectorate agency was still investigating the case.

"We're still investigating the case and have to wait for one or two weeks for the final result," he said when asked about reports saying that 30 officials would be sacked.

Earlier on Friday, the assistant to the city secretary on Administration Affairs, Ma'mun Amin, said the governor would remove 30 officials from their current positions.

"We will not dismiss them as city administration employees, but we'll remove them from their current positions," Amin told reporters.

"Some of them have admitted that they asked for illegal levies from advertising agencies to help smoothen the issuance of permits to place their billboard advertisements," he said on the sidelines of a plenary meeting at the City Council building to pass the 2000 City Budget.

Unconfirmed reports said the highest official to be affected by the investigation was the assistant to the City Secretary for Development Affairs, Ongky Sukasah, who was a former TPTPR chairman.

Ongky reportedly received a share of the illegal levies. He once told city councillors that he had used the money to finance the city administration-sponsored Persija soccer team.

Deputy Governor for Administration Affairs Abdul Kahfi, who is a member of the soccer team's board of patrons, denied the allegations. Ongky later rescinded his statement.

Amin said the governor had assigned him to design a new system for acquiring advertising licenses.

"I have two weeks to design a system which will provide a simple mechanism for advertising agencies and at the same time minimize corruption practices," he said.

One of the victims of such "complicated" bureaucracy in obtaining billboard permits is the manufacturer of So Klin detergent, whose 80 advertisements at bus stops all over Jakarta were taken down on Thursday.

The advertising agencies involved, PT. Kartika Karunia and PT. Prima Jaya, have yet to obtain licenses for the advertisements.

The agencies registered for the billboard advertisements in October and November last year. They, however, decided to go ahead with the promotion in January without the required permits.

According to the city's advertising regulations, advertising agencies can consider their applications approved if there are no answers, approvals or rejections after 30 days.

Governor Sutiyoso decided to dissolve TPTPR last Tuesday because of its overly complicated procedures in issuing permits for outdoor advertisements.

An advertisement agency, for example, has to go to separate city agencies to get different types of approval.

Such a procedure, Sutiyoso said, opened up the possibility of corruption.

Outdoor advertisement licenses are now being handled solely by the City Revenue Agency. (09/nvn)