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)