Wed, 13 Dec 2000

City bylaws needed for asset takeover

JAKARTA (JP): Experts are urging the city administration to draft city bylaws in a bid to take over various valuable assets in the capital ahead of next month's rolling out of regional autonomy.

Legal expert Rafiuddin Hamarung, who was one of the drafters of Law No.22/1999 on regional autonomy, said the city administration should not wait for the central government to issue a government regulation concerning the assets.

"The regional autonomy law and Law No.34/1999 on the capital's status could be used as the legal basis for city bylaws on the assets, so that the city administration could take over the management of those assets," Rafiuddin told a seminar here on Tuesday.

Governor Sutiyoso and many top city officials have repeatedly stated their intention of taking over the Senayan sports complex and the vast business and residential area being developed on the site of the former Kemayoran Airport, both in Central Jakarta, ahead of the putting into effect of regional autonomy nationwide on Jan. 1.

These valuable assets, including recreational parks, toll roads and important public facilities, are currently managed by the central government through the State Secretariat, and by private institutions, particularly those linked to the family of former president Soeharto.

"Of course, to draft such city bylaws the city administration should have a discussion first with the central government or State Secretariat about the sharing of responsibilities between them," Rafiuddin said.

He further proposed several possibilities in setting the basic rules for managing the assets so as to prevent confusion or overlapping of responsibilities.

"For example, the central government could reserve the power to plan the development of these assets while the city administration would implement the plans," Rafiuddin said.

For assets that could be a source of dispute between two local administrations, such as Soekarno-Hatta International Airport which is located in the Tangerang administrative region, Rafiuddin suggested that an agreement should be drawn up between the two administrations.

"The agreement should clearly state what comes under the authority of the capital and what comes under Tangerang's authority. Of course, in the case of the airport, the central government will still have some authority and this should also be covered by the agreement," he added.

Another possibility that could be applied to all valuable assets would be to establish city-owned companies to manage them. Each local administration would then have a share in the profits realized by the assets.

"The point is that there should be clear rules of the game on how to manage these places before the implementation of regional autonomy," Rafiuddin remarked.

National legislators have already stated their political support for the city administration in laying claim to such assets saying that this was in line with Law No. 22/1999 on regional autonomy which stated that all assets located in a region should be under the authority of the respective regional administration.

Currently, only a small fraction of the hundreds of millions of rupiah collected every day by the operators of toll roads across the capital goes into the city budget. The same applies to the huge sums earned by the operators of the Tanjung Priok port.

Jakarta Bay Reclamation Authority chief Mochamad Sidarta told the seminar that his authority planned to establish an integrated coastal management agency that would involve the sharing of responsibilities as between the city administration and the central government.

"We understand that the city may not be able to take care of the coast alone because the implementation of regional autonomy needs a process, and we still need the central government for many things. That is why we plan to set up an agency," Sidarta explained.

"We have been discussing this for some months now and hopefully Governor Sutiyoso and Minister of Transportation and Telecommunications Agum Gumelar will finally agree to the idea," Sidarta said. (dja)