City council rejects plan for Jaya Ancol to go public
Ahmad Junaidi, The Jakarta Post, Jakarta
The City Council rejected on Wednesday city-joint venture developer PT Pembangunan Jaya Ancol (PJA)'s plan to go public, fearing that the plan would reduce city assets.
PT PJA, which manages the Ancol recreation park in North Jakarta, is 88 percent owned by the city administration and 12 percent owned by property tycoon Ciputra.
"We fear that the plan to go public could be an effort by Ciputra to get more shares in the company," councillor Dani Anwar of the Justice Party told reporters after a hearing between the council's Commission B for economic affairs and PT PJA executives.
Dani, who is also the commission's secretary, claimed that city assets had continuously decreased and had even been lost in the administration's cooperation with Ciputra.
He revealed that Hotel Horison, which was previously mostly owned by the administration, is now 60 percent owned by Ciputra's company PT Pembangunan Jaya and 40 percent by the administration.
The Senen shopping center, which was previously fully owned by the administration, is now owned by PT Pembangunan Jaya, he said.
The divestment of both Pasar Senen and the Horison was conducted furtively without the knowledge of the City Council.
Councillor Agus Dharmawan of the National Mandate Party also questioned the appointment of Ciputra's contractor PT Jaya Konstruksi in the development of PT PJA's eight-story office building worth Rp 43 billion (US$4.3 million) in Ancol two years ago.
"It is unfeasible to build an office building during a monetary crisis. It seems PT PJA gave work to Jaya Konstruksi, which is its subsidiary," Agus said.
Meanwhile, PT PJA president Yahya Riabudi claimed that the appointment of PT Jaya Konstruksi was conducted through an open bid.
"Jaya Konstruksi does not always win bids, it has lost many," Yahya said.
He refused to comment on the company's plan to enter the stock market.
PT PJA is often viewed as a cash cow for certain officials of the administration and councillors.
Two years ago the company financed a controversial foreign trip of dozens of officials and 15 councillors, which later became known as Ancolgate.
Some suspect that the councillors have rejected the plan to go public because they will no longer be able to benefit from the company.
But Dani suggested that the company should be audited by a public accountant to make it transparent like a public firm and to avoid being used as a cash cow.
"If the problem is transparency, why don't we hire a public accountant to audit the firm and announce the company's balance sheet, like a public firm?" he said.