Councilors urge govt to sell stakes in umprofitable firms

Councilors urge govt to sell stakes in umprofitable firms

JAKARTA (JP): Councilors are intensifying their pressure on
the governor to sell city shares in nonperforming private
companies and use the money to keep the administration going in
the crisis.

They slammed Wednesday the Sutiyoso administration for
withholding information on the number and performance of private
companies in which it has shares.

One councilor alleged that several joint ventures exploited
the lack of government supervision and did not share their
profits.

Djafar Badjeber, head of Commission B for economic affairs,
said the administration must stop withholding information on any
matters relating to the joint ventures.

"We don't know how many joint ventures it has. What we know is
that many of the companies contribute very little to the
administration's revenue."

He emphasized that there was no use in maintaining business
cooperation with private companies.

At least 40 joint venture companies are currently on the list
in the administration's directory of names and address of
government officials, departments, city-owned and joint venture
companies.

Head of Commission C for finance and revenue affairs,
Amarullah Asbah, said the selling of the administration's shares
in the companies could help the city overcome its financial
hardships.

Half of the joint ventures are shoddy contributors to the city
revenue, he said.

Several companies, including property developer PT Nurjaya
Sukses, have never contributed a cent to the city revenue, he
claimed.

"The administration owns about 25 percent of Nurjaya, but the
company has given nothing since it was founded in 1980. Imagine,
an 18-year-old business cooperation without profit."

Amarullah said that all the joint ventures could only
contribute about Rp 11 billion (about US$750,000) a year to the
administration.

"That's a very small amount. They must have been able to give
much more than that. Some companies say they contribute little
because business is sluggish and others say they reinvest the
profits."

The council has long suspected that the administration's
business counterparts do not want to share their profit, he said.

Djafar charged that many entrepreneurs entered into business
partnerships with the administration simply to build connections
to land profits for their enterprises.

Amarullah said the paltry contribution should be partly blamed
on the lack of control on the part of the city administration.
(cst)