Council asked to probe ownership of Sheraton hotel

Bambang Nurbianto, The Jakarta Post, Jakarta

The City Council is urged to establish a special committee tasked with investigating the decrease in the city's shares in the 16- story Hotel Sheraton Media on Jl. Gunung Sahari, Central Jakarta.

Legislators from the Council's Commission B for economic affairs said there were strong indications of irregularities in the reduction of the city administration's ownership in the company, from 25 percent in 1992 to 7.34 percent currently.

"We hope that the establishment (of the special committee), which was planned two months ago, will be realized as soon as possible," Ugiek Soegihardjo, a member of Commission B, told the press on Wednesday.

Commission B secretary Dani Anwar also said that the establishment of the special committee on the Sheraton case could herald investigations into the loss of many city assets.

Ugiek added that if the special committee was not established within a month from Wednesday, he would resign from his position as a City Council member.

The city administration and its partner, PT Bakti Citra Daya (BCD), built Hotel Sheraton Media in 1992 on a 18,628-square- meter plot owned by the administration, and established PT Graha Sahari Surya Jaya to manage the hotel. At that time, the city administration's share ownership in PT Graha Sahari was 25 percent, while BCD owned 75 percent.

Ugiek was part of a small team assigned by the Commission B to make an initial investigation into the shares. The three other members of the team were Agus Darmawan, Syarif Zulkarnaen Ginting and Haim Mahadin.

The team recommended the City Council to establish a special committee to investigate possible irregularities in the reduction of the city's ownership in the Hotel Sheraton.

The share ownership composition of PT Graha Sahari in February stood at 7.34 percent for the city administration, 34.6 percent for BCD and 57.9 percent for state-owned Bank BNI-46, said Ugiek.

Ugiek said city officials and the hotel management had failed to explain why the city's ownership had been reduced.

"Therefore, we requested the formation of a special committee to investigate the case," he said.

Ugiek also questioned Zulkarnaen's stance on the establishment of the special committee, as he had not yet signed the team's letter of recommendation to the Council's leaders.

Zulkarnaen is chairman of Commission B.

"The question is, why has Pak Zul not signed the letter, while (Commission B secretary) Pak Dani has," Ugiek said.

Zulkarnaen confirmed Ugiek's statement and said that he had not signed the recommendation, as more information and data was needed. He said he would sign the letter after the process was complete.

Meanwhile, Deputy Chairman Chudlary Syafi'i stressed that the Council leaders had already agreed to form a special committee, adding that they were awaiting the letter from Commission B.

Ugiek suspects that the city administration is systematically cutting down or "losing" its assets.

He said that the city administration had also lost Hotel Kuta in Bali, 10 hectares of land that was formerly a part of Kemayoran airport in Kemayoran, Central Jakarta, and other unregistered assets.

According to its own records, in 2000, the companies and foundations owned by the city administration totaled 61, but by 2001, that figure had dropped to 25. In the administration's 2003 records, only nine companies are listed.

Separately, Dani added that many of the asset certificates were not in custody of the city administration, a fact that has created a fear that the administration stood to lose other assets.