Corruption in garbage management suspected
Corruption in garbage management suspected
Muninggar Sri Saraswati, The Jakarta Post, Jakarta
The closure of the Bantar Gebang dump site in Bekasi, West
Java, a recent headache for city administration officials, has
further exposed allegations of corruption at the Jakarta sanitary
agency.
Agency bureaucrats, from its lowest-ranking officers to top
officials, have drawn fire for manipulating the city's budget for
handling garbage, according to Ali Imron Hussein, deputy chief of
the City Council's Commission D for development affairs.
"Corruption in the agency is terrible, as it was done not only
by top officials, but also by low-ranking officers," said the
city councillor.
Higher-ups manipulated the agency's budget for waste
management to their benefit, while lower ranking officers,
including drivers, he noted, took advantage of the situation by
taking the garbage to buyers and selling selected items --
instead of its proper destination, the dump in Bantar Gebang.
He referred to the graft as a "time consuming" process that
has resulted in a reduction in the amount of city garbage
transported to dump sites "per day."
Ali said that, every year, the agency officials order the
purchase of several trucks under the pretext of increasing their
capacity for transporting the garbage, saying their workers can
only haul 80 percent of the 25,000 cubic meters of trash that
Jakarta produces on a daily basis.
"We (the councillors) have asked them for a report of their
annual expenses but, up until now, we have not received it," he
told reporters.
Every year, the agency has received about Rp 90 billion from
the city budget to manage its garbage. This year, it plans to
allocate Rp 50 billion to set up a sanitary landfill system at
Bantar Gebang site.
"But they haven't realized it yet -- where did the money go as
they failed to manage the garbage?" he asked.
"The city inspectorate should interrogate them," Ali added.
The excess garbage, he said, has become a veritable gold mine
for the sanitary agency officers.
The city administration came under attack earlier this month
when Bekasi mayoralty decided to shut down the 104-hectare Bantar
Gebang dump site.
That decision, however, shocked the administration, which
insisted that Bekasi mayoralty could not close the site until
2003, as stipulated under a signed agreement.
As a result of the incident, a panicked Governor Sutiyoso
immediately fired the city sanitation agency's head Saksono
Soehodo and his deputy.
Earlier this week, following intervention by the central
government, the Bekasi mayoralty agreed to reopen Bantar Gebang
dump site for a one-month grace period.
The mayoralty demanded that Jakarta city officials improve
conditions at the site, including on its sanitary landfill system
and the construction of medical care facilities for residents.
If the administration failed to accommodate the demand, the
Bekasi mayoralty will close the site again on Feb. 1 next year.
Apparently, garbage problems will continue to haunt the
administration. Apart from obligation to examine alleged
corruption at the sanitary agency, the administration has yet to
make a serious plan to solve it.
The spokesman of the administration, Muhayat, admitted that
the city budget could ill afford to accede to the Bekasi
mayoralty's demand.
"We will probably use a reserve fund to cope with the
problem," he said, without elaboration.