City to probe fire insurance funds

JAKARTA (JP): The city secretary will investigate the utilization of funds collected from electricity bills for fire insurance in slum areas, Deputy Governor for Economic and Development Affairs Tb. M. Rais said.

Rais was responding to a councilor's question on the Rp 57 billion (US$24.10 million) collected so far from electricity bills.

Based on a 1992 rule on the prevention and management of fire, "the city is authorized to collect funds for fire insurance in slum areas," Rais said yesterday.

But the collection of funds through consumers' electricity bills may be mentioned in other rules, he said.

"The City Secretary, Harun Al Rasyid, has been instructed by the governor to check the follow-up of the collected funds," Rais said.

Anwar Ilmar, a former deputy governor in charge of public welfare, said Tuesday that so far, the funds collected since the earlier governorship of Wiyogo Atmodarminto have yet to be used.

Ilmar, now a vice chairman of Commission II of the House of Representatives, said that cooperation between the municipality and the state-owned electricity company, PT PLN, began in 1992. It also involves a private insurance firm, PT Bumiputramuda.

The initiative is aimed at helping the residents of poor areas who have been deprived of all their assets after fires, which are frequent, have destroyed their homes.

Funds from electricity bills were collected as of July 1993, Ilmar said, as quoted by the Berita Yudha daily on Wednesday.

Meanwhile, the management of PT PLN had told the Golkar faction earlier that it had already submitted the collected funds of Rp 57 billion to the municipality. (anr)