City bylaws needed for asset takeover

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)