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.