Thu, 01 Feb 2001

Council delays selection of parking operators

JAKARTA (JP): The City Council has delayed its approval of the private parking operators bidding to help the administration manage on-street parking, a councillor said on Wednesday.

The council's deputy speaker, Djafar Badjeber, said the council could not approve the private parking operators because there were numerous loopholes in the screening process that led to the selection of the four parking operators, two of which will be chosen to enter a partnership with the city to manage on- street parking.

"The City Council will ask the private companies to present their proposals directly to the City Council before its issues its approval," Djafar said on the sidelines of a hearing with the parking operators and the team screening the companies.

He cited the failure of the screening team's report to specify how the revenue will be divided between the parking operators and the city administration.

Admitting it could not manage the city's parking affairs on its own, the city administration announced earlier that it needed partners to help handle on-street parking in the capital.

But the city administration said it will remain involved in the management of on-street parking because the city streets are public areas.

The city administration said the management of the city parking agency is poor and it required partners to help it manage and operate the city's parking affairs.

City Bylaw No. 5/1999 stipulates that the administration has the responsibility to manage on-street parking in the capital, but it leaves open the possibility of cooperating with private companies.

The administration-initiated partnership program will manage 517 on-street parking spots, covering about 127,856 square meters of parking area across the capital.

The city administration announced last December that four private parking operators had passed the second stage of the screening process for the partnership program.

The four companies, ranked from best to worst according to their proposals, are PT Adiwira Sembada, PT Mega Nusantara Masagena, PT Rodial Indonesia and PT Sumber Batu.

Two of the four companies will win the tender and their names are scheduled to be announced on Feb. 1, subject to the City Council's approval.

Out of 323 private parking operators in the city, only 50 took part in the tender.

Nineteen companies passed the first stage of the screening, and from these 19 companies the final four were chosen.

The city parking agency appointed the Technology Research Institute of the University of Indonesia to evaluate the companies' proposals.

The city parking agency was allotted some Rp 14.6 billion (US$1.62 million) in the 2000 city budget to manage parking in the capital. It received this money because it was unable to meet its Rp 16 billion revenue target for the year, and has suffered losses over the past several years. (04)