Bylaw on land clearance licenses 'badly needed'

JAKARTA (JP): The city administration was urged yesterday to prepare a bylaw to specify the rights and responsibilities of every developer applying for a license to clear land for development purposes.

City councilor Ali Wongso Sinaga of the Golkar faction said yesterday that the bylaw was badly needed to regulate and control the performances of licensed developers.

"The bylaw will enable the administration to take legal action against developers they are found to have failed to meet their obligations," said Ali, who chairs Commission D for development affairs.

The administration currently has no power to impose anything other than administrative sanctions on developers guilty of violating their responsibilities.

"Administrative sanctions, including temporarily suspending development projects until punitive fines have been paid, is not enough," he said.

Ali's statement was made in reaction to a move taken yesterday by Jakarta Governor Sutiyoso. He ordered his staff to set up a team to investigate all companies granted licenses to develop vacant land that had failed to meet their obligations to the city and its populace.

The team will be headed by deputy governor for development affairs Budiardjo Soekmadi, who will be assisted by the assistant for administration and development affairs, Onky Sukasah.

Ali underlined the importance for the team to immediately launch a massive audit program of all developers who held land clearance permits.

He said it should check whether the areas of land now under the developers' control were the same areas approved in the license agreements and whether the developers had met their obligations to provide compensation for land sequestered and to develop social and public facilities near the project sites.

Existing data shows that the administration issued a total of 2,189 land clearance licenses in the period between 1971 and 1997. At least 96 of those licenses were subsequently revoked because of administrative and technical failures on the part of the holders.

The data also shows that 1,809 license holders are currently under investigation for failing to fulfill their obligations, including the payment of fair compensation, and the construction of public facilities and modest apartments to accommodate those left homeless by the developments.

Onky said that the establishment of the team indicated that the administration was willing to take stern action against delinquent developers.

He said that of the 264 license holders recently surveyed by the city, only 34 of them had completely fulfilled their obligations.

"We will ask the others to meet their obligations by paying off their debts or by claiming an area of their land equal to the value of their debts," Onky said.

The developers must immediately release the land or else they would forfeit their claims to the whole site, he added. (cst)