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.