City official questions prize-parking system
City official questions prize-parking system
JAKARTA (JP): City Secretary Harun Al Rasyid expressed concern
yesterday over the poor knowledge on the part of private
companies interested in handling the city's parking business
under the prize system.
"All the proposals they submitted to the city administration
deal with prizes they offer to car owners. They focus only on the
amount of revenues, which will be given to the city
administration," he said.
He said the proposals failed to explain the other aspects of
parking in the city, such as traffic and security. "Parking in
the city is not only about revenues, it has social functions
too," Harun said.
He explained that there should be clear concepts on parking
management, including its function as part of traffic control,
and the security aspect.
"The proposals the companies submitted have not yet been
calculated carefully and there is a big question on how the
system will enable both the city administration and the company
to earn a profit," Harun said.
He said the city administration is still reviewing proposals
from city-owned parking authority BP Parkir, private company PT
Ikabina Karya Sukses and two other private firms, who are
newcomers in the bidding, to manage the parking business with
prizes. Harun refused to name the two other companies.
The city secretary questioned the prize system offered by the
companies and its affect on the people because the implementation
of the system could encourage the public to buy parking tickets
just to win the prizes.
Private companies made bids to manage the city's parking
facilities after BP Parkir failed to fulfill expectations amid
allegations that part of the parking fees collected by the city-
owned company had been misappropriated.
Out of the 19 private companies submitting proposals to manage
the parking facilities, 18 withdrew their bids earlier this year.
PT Ikabina Karya Sukses is the only bidder of the initial 19
to propose the prize-parking system. The company claims that its
proposed prize-parking system would contribute Rp 25.9 billion
(US$11.77 million) to the city administration every year if
approved.
The amount is greater than the revenues collected by BP
Parkir, which is burdened with "leaks" in its financial
management. The municipality set a Rp 14.6 billion revenue target
from parking fees in the 1994/95 fiscal year, which ended on
March 31. Over the first the nine months of the year, BP Parkir
managed to collect only Rp 9 billion. (yns)