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)