City Police arrest middlemen

City Police arrest middlemen

JAKARTA (JP): Not a single unauthorized middleman could be
seen at the vehicle document processing unit office at the City
Police Headquarters yesterday.

During an operation on Wednesday, the military police
arrested 78 middlemen, among them, two police sergeants and seven
media correspondents. The correspondents were mostly from
publications in North Sumatra that deal with the internal affairs
of certain organizations.

All of them are accused of illegally operating as middlemen,
who intervene in the processing of driving licenses, vehicle
ownership documents and other related papers.

They normally collude with certain officers and charge
customers additional costs ranging from Rp 10,000 (US$4.50) to Rp
50,000 per document.

Applicants processing their documents by themselves are
generally forced to wait a long time and the middlemen, once
given a bribe, usually speed up the process.

After the operation the entry gate for pedestrians was also
closed to prevent other on-duty guards from entering and offering
their "services". (bsr)