Confusion mars license service

Damar Harsanto, The Jakarta Post, Jakarta

Day one of the driver's license renewal service at police stations on Tuesday was marked by confusion, following failure by the police to prepare the locations and infrastructure necessary for the service to be operated properly.

The service, scheduled to begin at 8 a.m., was delayed until 11 a.m. as the police had yet to make available bank forms for applicants.

"We had to take the first 100 Bank Rakyat Indonesia forms from our office in Daan Mogot (West Jakarta) as the bank official did not show up," said head of the driver's license registration unit at the Daan Mogot office First Insp. Sudanto, who also acknowledged the lack of police coordination with the bank.

The lack of preparation is quite obvious, given the absence of necessary infrastructure in the waiting rooms, such as notification boards on the procedure or desks for applicants to fill in the required forms.

"The computers were installed only at 5 a.m. this morning. Yesterday, we prepared the room. Look at the walls; the paint's still wet," said Rohanna, an administrative employee at the South Jakarta police station.

South and East Jakarta Police started to offer the decentralized service on Tuesday as part of their attempt to provide more accessible services to the public and to eradicate middlemen, whose fees to applicants are unreasonably high.

"The Central Jakarta Police failed to complete their preparations so they could not start providing the service today," said Sudanto.

He added that the service for Central Jakarta residents would be available at the Cengkareng police station, while the police were still preparing a plot of land in Koja, North Jakarta, to enable the service to be provided to residents there.

Some applicants appeared to be confused by the procedure and documentation necessary.

"How do you fill in the form ... After that, what is the next step ?" complained Lalang Permana, a resident of Cilandak, South Jakarta.

Lalang said he used to rely on middlemen to deal with all of the administrative side, at a hefty charge Rp 140,000, much higher than the official fee of only Rp 52,500 plus medical check fee of Rp 5,000.

South Jakarta Police expect to deal with up to 300 applicants per day, while at East Jakarta the target is 700.

Thus far, the decentralized service only covers driver's license renewal due to space limitations.

"The issuance (of driver's licenses) requires a vast amount of space for the written and practical tests," said Sudanto.