All play and no work gets Sutiyoso hot under collar

All play and no work gets Sutiyoso hot under collar

Damar Harsanto, The Jakarta Post, Jakarta

In an attempt to finish a major backlog of big city projects,
Governor Sutiyoso has set a deadline of six months for senior
officials to shape up or ship out.

"I have told them to do their utmost to properly do their
jobs. Otherwise, they will face severe sanctions," Sutiyoso told
reporters at City Hall on Monday.

The sanctions would include replacement and demotion.

Expressing dissatisfaction to his subordinates with the large
number of city projects that had been halted or delayed, he
pinned the blame squarely on their poor performance.

"The land acquisition program for the East Flood Canal project,
the development of waste treatment facilities in the capital,
transportation and park projects are among those that have been
proceeding at a snail's pace," city spokesman Catur Laswanto
quoted Sutiyoso as saying.

The construction of the East Flood Canal, which has been on
the drawing board since the time of governor Ali Sadikin in 1973
and which is intended to help prevent annual flooding in the
capital, has been proceeding extremely slowly. The 23.6 kilometer
canal worth Rp 5 trillion is strongly opposed by residents whose
properties will be affected by the project. These landowners are
demanding higher compensation from the administration.

The administration has also found it difficult to reduce its
dependence on the Bantar Gebang dump in Bekasi, where it has been
disposing of a massive 6,000 tons of garbage every day for more
than 15 years. The city's only waste treatment plant, built by
the private sector and located in Bojong, Bogor, West Java, has
not been able to operate to date following objections from local
people.

Critics have also lambasted the slow progress made by the
administration in improving transportation in the city, including
the construction of a monorail system, additional busways and a
proposed subway.

The Jakarta Parks Agency has been criticized for its failure
to increase the percentage of green spaces in the capital in line
with the city's target of 13.9 percent out of the capital's total
area of 650 square kilometers by 2010. Currently, green spaces in
Jakarta only account for 9 percent of the city's area.

Sutiyoso plans to summon the relevant officials one by one in
the near future to seek their explanations over the delays and
lack of progress.

Catur said Sutiyoso had given his officials six months to make
acceptable progress with the stalled projects.

After the six month period is up, Sutiyoso will have only one
year left of his second term as Jakarta governor to convince the
public that he is deserving of their support.

Sutiyoso also said that he would not tolerate any corruption
involving his officials. "I will not accept such practices in my
administration. There will be no such abuses in my office,"
he is reported to have said.

A number of top officials in the administration told The
Jakarta Post that several recent graft cases that had implicated
city officials had made senior city executives fearful of making
decisions, even in small projects.

The latest alleged graft case involves the forgery of
operating licenses for taxis, and is now under police
investigation. Three senior officials are reportedly implicated
in the case.