Building permits process still complicated

Building permits process still complicated

JAKARTA (JP): Chairman of the Indonesian Real Estate Association Enggartiasto Lukito has expressed concern over the arduous procedures involved to gain building permits for housing projects in the city.

Speaking at a meeting between the association and officials of the city administration on Wednesday night, Enggartiasto said that the onerous procedures forced developers to spend a great deal of time to get the permits and thereby caused construction delays.

"Any delay causes developers to suffer financial losses and one of the ways to speed up the processing of a permit is to offer bribes to officials of the city administration," he said.

He said that the officials were not responsible for this bribery because it was the developers who paid the money. "However, the practice should not be tolerated," he said.

He urged the government to simplify the procedures for the processing of building permits as a means of ending the corruption.

Head of the City Development and Supervision Office, Soeharto Prodjowijono, told the meeting that his office had no intention of lengthening the process of issuing building permits. He contended that is was the developers, themselves, who were responsible for delays, he said.

"Many developers -- especially those concerned with public facilities -- fail to fulfill all the requirements set by the city administration for the issuance of the permits at the time of submitting their proposals," Soeharto said.

"There are still many proposals piling up in my office, submitted by developers who have not fulfilled the requirements," he said.

The requirement which developers most often failed to meet was the provision of space for small-scale traders in shopping mall projects, he said.

Soeharto was adamant that his office would not issue temporary permits before the developers had fulfilled the requirements.

Soeharto criticized developers who refuse to be responsible about the damage caused by their projects.

For example, he said, developers refused to clean the area around their construction sites, polluted with dust and debris from the building work, claiming it was outside their responsibilities. Soeharto said that his office would be taking stern action against such negligent developers. (yns)