Council to decide action on Ancol scam

JAKARTA (JP): The city council will inspect reports detailing the receipt by some of its members of money amounting to some Rp 4 billion (US$425,500) from the developer of the Ancol leisure complex.

PT Pembangunan Jaya Ancol reportedly financed overseas trips for six councillors last month.

City council speaker Edy Waluyo said on Monday that he would coordinate with all faction leaders to ascertain the facts and decide on appropriate measures.

If the investigation failed to produce evidence, Edy said, the council would only recommend a solution and leave the final decision to each council faction.

Echoing Edy's statements, one of the council deputies, Djafar Badjeber of the United Development Party (PPP), said the council needed to clarify the amount of money spent by the councillors on their trips.

"There could be other officials from various city agencies and from PT Pembangunan Jaya Ancol itself, who could be using the money and blaming it on (the council members)," he said.

Djafar added that his faction was ready to take responsibility if any of its members were proven to be have been involved in the disbursement of the funds.

"We must call on the board of directors of PT Pembangunan Jaya Ancol to clarify the matter," said Djafar, adding that city-owned companies frequently shared the costs of similar trips in the past that were aimed at conducting comparative studies.

Separately, chairman of the Indonesian Democratic Party of Struggle (PDI Perjuangan) faction, Audi I.Z. Tambunan, said that his faction had established a task force to investigate the involvement of its members in the case.

"This shows our concern about public trust in the city council," said Audi, adding that the results of the investigation would be forwarded to the PDI Perjuangan's Jakarta chapter executive board.

Currently, there are 85 city councillors, with the PDI Perjuangan with 30 representatives constituting the biggest grouping on the council.

It was earlier reported that PT Pembangunan Jaya Ancol had admitted financing the overseas trips of 45 people, including six councillors, to Australia and South Africa to study waterfront city projects, as the company may construct a similar project in the Ancol area of North Jakarta at some time in the future.

However, the company's president director Rushadi said earlier that the expenditure was less than Rp 4 billion. PT Pembangunan Jaya Ancol is part of the holding company PT Pembangunan Jaya. More than 80 percent of its shares are owned by the city administration. Governor Sutiyoso is the chief commissioner of PT Pembangunan Jaya, while business tycoon Ciputra owns the rest of the company's shares.

Meanwhile, Sutiyoso also questioned the allocation of the funds by the company as the city administration had already allocated a total of Rp 13 billion from the 2000 city budget for councillors' overseas trips this year.

Most councillors have denied the allegations raised thus far. (07)