City Council: PDAM Jaya is lacking professionalism
JAKARTA (JP): The City Council has criticized the City Water Company, PDAM Jaya, for its lack of professionalism in managing its human resources, which is partly why tap water leakages remain as high as 44 percent.
"The management of PDAM Jaya is never held by those who are well-versed in procuring clean drinking water for urban communities," Lukman Fritz Mokoginta of the Indonesian Democratic Party (PDI) faction told a plenary meeting which discussed a bill on the excess of the city's 1993-1994 budget yesterday.
PDAM Jaya needs to put the right man in the right place, he added.
Lukman said that at certain places, PDAM Jaya's pipes are already leaky although they were only installed three to four years ago.
And although PDAM Jaya has received reports about the leakages, consumers must wait for months before the company does attempt repairing the leaky pipes, he said.
"No wonder the financial burden caused by the leakage is eventually imposed on the consumers," he added.
Recently, a dispute broke out between the City Council and PDAM Jaya when the company, without first consulting the council, raised the tap water price at public water tanks it serves by 200 percent to Rp 780 (360 U.S. cents) per cubic meter as of this month.
A number of city councilors who were unhappy with PDAM Jaya's decision said they were campaigning to block the company's plan.
Lukman said the PDI faction was also concerned that many official houses are left unoccupied by the officials who were allotted the houses while on the other hand, there are many lower-ranking officials who still do not have houses.
Lukman said a budget of Rp 5.48 billion ($2.53 million) was earmarked during the 1993-94 fiscal year for the appropriation of a housing site in South Jakarta for high-ranking city officials and deputy chairmen of the City Council.
Lukman said the PDI faction was dismayed that such a huge amount was spent for constructing and maintaining houses which are only to be left unoccupied. (arf)