Council to investigate city assets

Council to investigate city assets

Bambang Nurbianto, The Jakarta Post, Jakarta

Fearing the loss of city assets currently rented by private
companies, the City Council's Commission B for economic affairs
has agreed to set up a special committee to investigate and
secure them.

The assets belong to the city administration but there is no
documentation to prove city ownership and most of the assets have
been rented by private companies.

Commission B secretary Dani Anwar said on Wednesday the plan
to establish the committee was developed after City Asset Bureau
officials failed to show the documentation of assets formerly
controlled by the City Investment Management Board (BP-IPM).

The hearing on Tuesday was intended to investigate and
safeguard the assets, which were left by the Dutch colonial
administration.

"But the explanation from officials is far from satisfactory,
so we need to set up a special committee to investigate the
assets," Dani said.

He said that Commission B questioned the ownership documents
of the assets several times during hearings with City Asset
Bureau executives, but no valid documents were produced.

Another Commission B member Ugiek Soegihardjo said the
proposed committee is needed to prevent city assets from
vanishing. He said this had happened before when asset management
was handed over to private companies.

He gave examples including: the Kuta Jaya Hotel in Bali, a
plot of land in Kemayoran, Central Jakarta; and the reduction of
city ownership in Sheraton Media Hotel in Gunung Sahari, Central
Jakarta.

Explaining how city administration lost Kuta Jaya Hotel, Ugiek
said the land on which the hotel was built in the early 1990s,
was originally owned by city administration but private business
partners were invited to build and manage the hotel.

Later, the companies borrowed money to build the hotel,
however they could not afford to repay the loans and sold the
hotel to other private firms.

"This could happen to other city assets as businesspeople
frequently enter into partnerships without enough funds," Ugiek
said.

City Asset Bureau head, Rama Budhi, said the Jakarta
administration only had documentation for 2,600 of a total of
8,000 assets.

The assets include offices, schools, parks, hospitals and
other buildings currently being managed or rented by private
parties including social foundations; and the land given up by
developers to the city administration for general and social
facilities.

According to Rama the total value of those assets was around
Rp 74 trillion.

Part of the city assets feared to be missing and not documented
in BP-IPM's list of properties:

1. 10,000 square meters of land on Jl. Raya Sumur Timur, East
Jakarta, rented by PT Majuan Masittah Latief from 2000 to 2027.

2. 8,730.5 square meters of land on Jl. Pulo Kambing, East
Jakarta, rented by PT Jaya Nur Sukses from 1997 to 2023.

3. 6,600 square meters of land at the Pulo Gadung industrial zone
in East Jakarta, rented by PT Jaya Nur Sukses from 1997 to 2028.

4. 8,000 square meters of land on Jl. Krapu No. 10 Pasar Ikan,
North Jakarta, rented by PT Jaya Fibrindo Karsa Tratama.