Claims of foul play at parking authority probed

Claims of foul play at parking authority probed

JAKARTA (JP): Governor Surjadi Soedirdja ordered City Administration Inspector Djoko Brotosurjono yesterday to investigate alleged corruption at the city parking authority.

"The city administration will take firm actions against any officials found involved in the corruption case," Surjadi told reporters yesterday.

Surjadi gave the order after reading a report on differences between the amount of funds reported by the parking authority and the bank receipts for the funds turned in by privately owned parking companies.

Under existing regulations, building owners, who have parking facilities, are obliged to contribute 25 percent of their parking revenues to the city administration through the parking authority.

The parking authority's files show that it has received a smaller amount of parking fees than the actual sums paid by private companies to the City Revenue Office.

Bank receipts show that Islamic Hospital on Jl. Cempaka Putih, East Jakarta, sends Rp 500,000 to the parking authority every month, but that the agency has recorded that the hospital only turns in Rp 150,000 per month.

Tarumanegara University in West Jakarta sends Rp 400,000 per month to the parking authority, which later reports that it receives only Rp 248,000 per month.

Djoko, who was ordered to handle the case, told reporters yesterday that these discrepancies provide enough reason for his office to investigate the matter. "We will investigate this and take further action after the investigation," he said.

Meanwhile, Commission C of the City Council in charge of financial affairs, yesterday invited a building owner to discuss parking fee contributions.

Jan M. Royani, an executive from PT Pura Seloka Mas on Jl. Sudirman, told members of the commission that his building is paying Rp 800,000 per month to the parking authority.

According to the authorities records, however, the company has been paying only Rp 550,000 monthly.

Chairman of the commission, Helmy AR Syihab, said, "We have doubted the reports made by the parking authority on the amount of parking fee contributions from private companies because the amounts are too small."

He explained that a report from the parking authority showed that the total amount of fees collected from 147 private parking companies was only Rp 108.84 million per month.

Helmy said Commission C suspects that the corruption is not only happening in relation to parking fee collection from private companies, but also in the fee collection from the authority's own parking areas.

Councilor Aliwongso H. Sinaga, from the ruling Golkar faction, was quoted as estimating that every year about Rp 35 billion in parking fees is misappropriated.

He said that if the parking authority were managed professionally, parking fee revenue could reach Rp 50 billion, far above a target of Rp 14.6 billion in the current 1994-1995 fiscal year.

Aliwongso demanded that the city administration improve the management of the parking authority to prevent further massive misappropriation of funds. (yns)