Councilors worry about quality of school buildings

Councilors worry about quality of school buildings

JAKARTA (JP): The city council has urged the city
administration to tighten its supervision of the construction of
school buildings to ensure quality.

Siti Maryam Ahmad, secretary of the council's Commission E,
which oversees people's welfare, said that the construction of
many school buildings has not been in accordance with the city
administration's requirements.

"This shows that supervision has been very weak," she said
yesterday after a hearing with the Jakarta education office and
other related offices at the city council.

"The city administration should improve supervision, or the
collusion between contractors and the officials in charge will
continue to result in sloppy work," Siti added.

The commission has received reports that as many as 103
elementary school buildings in the city are now in poor condition
and need renovation.

Siti said the reports indicated corruption; in which
contractors have received less money than that allocated for the
projects. "This situation has forced them to build inferior
buildings," she added.

The contractors had to use low-quality materials and,
consequently, the school buildings need renovation prematurely,
Siti said.

Commission member Ary Amier Armas said that, in North Jakarta
alone, about 30 percent of a total of 481 buildings are in poor
condition and need to be renovated soon.

"Some of the buildings are relatively new and their poor
condition is mainly due to distortions of the construction
plans," he said.

Head of the Jakarta office of the education and culture
ministry, Kusnan Ismukanto, said he had never received any report
of corruption. However, he called on headmasters not to sign
letters of acknowledgement where buildings were poorly
constructed.

According to city procedures, headmasters should sign a letter
of acknowledgement as soon as construction work on new school
buildings has been completed.

The city administration has allocated about Rp 19 billion
(US$8.63 million) of its 1995/1996 budget for the construction
and renovation of 58 elementary school buildings.

Reports show that 30 schools have non-school buildings within
their grounds, Siti said, adding that this is against the rules.
One school in Taman Sari, West Jakarta, has boarding houses on
its grounds, she said.

"This is against the regulations and (means) we cannot
guarantee the students' safety," she added.(yns/32)