DLLAJR 'corrupt' officials transferred

DLLAJR 'corrupt' officials transferred

JAKARTA (JP): Eighteen employees of a vehicle roadworthiness
test station in Srengseng Sawah, South Jakarta, have been
transferred to other posts following a thorough investigation
into their alleged roles in collecting illegal levies.

The head of the vehicle testing unit of the City Land
Transportation Agency (DLLAJR), Abubakar, said in a statement
released on Monday that the undisciplined employees were removed
from their positions on Oct. 1.

He, however, did not name them or say to where they had been
moved.

Reports of the illegal levies collection emerged last Thursday
after a city councilor found that the cost for a test at the
Srengseng Sawah testing station had jumped to Rp 105,000
(US$9.75), compared to Rp 20,000 as stipulated in city regulation
9/1992.

Commission C for financial affairs member Asrul Harun, who
reportedly runs a transportation firm, claimed that he had to pay
such an amount for his car test. These included Rp 24,000 for an
application form, Rp 6,000 for a car wash, Rp 5,000 for an
emissions test, Rp 5,000 for a speedometer test, Rp 5,000 for a
brake test, Rp 5,000 for a chassis test and Rp 5,000 for a
headlight test.

Other additional fees were Rp 20,000 for a test result book,
Rp 15,000 for a medicine box, Rp 1,000 for parking and Rp 5,000
for the installation of a license plate, he said. There were two
other charges that he did not clarify.

According to Abubakar, his office had never set such tariffs.

"Some of our customers have given (extra) money (to our staff)
but most of them give nothing and our office has never set such
high tariffs," he insisted.

From now on, he said, all of his personnel "would no longer
want to receive anything" for their services.

Abubakar said there were numerous opportunities to collect
illegal levies at the test stations because the present
regulations allowed other people, instead of the vehicle owners,
to take the cars to be tested.

"I think the malfeasance happened because the people who were
assigned by the owners to take the vehicles to the station wanted
to make some money by cooperating with the station's staff," he
said.

Sharing Abubakar's view, DLLAJR head J.P. Sepang also denied
the existence of widespread illegal practices. He said that
public transportation vehicle drivers might have paid scalpers
loitering around the station to help them find a shortcut to get
the services.

In an attempt to meet the public complaints, Abubakar's office
has decided to abolish levies which have no legal grounds,
including the Rp 2,500 for a car wash, fees of Rp 2,000 or Rp
3,000 (depending on the car type) for Organda (the public land
transportation owners association) and Rp 1,000 for the
development of Organda's Jakarta chapter office.

His office would also stop the prerequisite Rp 3,500 charge
levied to compensate privately run PT Amanah for painting the
worthiness notice on the sides of vehicles.

Abubakar revealed that the number of public transportation
vehicles tested at the stations has declined by about 30 percent
since the middle of last year due to the prolonged monetary
crisis.

"Formerly, there were about 1,400 vehicles being tested a day
but it's now only about 1,000 a day," he said.

He estimated that the decline also reflected the sharp
decrease in the number of public transportation vehicles
currently operating on the streets of the capital due to the
skyrocketing prices of spare parts.

Of 6,318 large buses plying the city's streets, only 4,269 of
them have undergone vehicle tests, while only 6,738 small buses
of the existing 8,141 have taken the tests. (ind)