Firm apologizes over land deal

JAKARTA (JP): An executive of PT Catur Swasakti Utama, a subsidiary of the widely diversified Bakrie group, admitted yesterday that his firm had failed to meet requirements in a land exchange deal with the city.

Company director Max B. Lani told city councilors that the company, which developed Taman Rasuna Apartments in Kuningan, South Jakarta, had experienced problems due to the prolonged economic crisis and a management reshuffle last year.

"I apologize for what we have done. We are facing many difficulties fulfilling the deal due to a management reshuffle last December and the current crisis," he told members of Commission E for social welfare at the firm's project site.

Under the deal, the company was to develop the apartment project on a 49-hectare plot of land in 1994 after removing two elementary school buildings and a nursing home.

The company was then required to provide the city with a new 5,322-square-meter plot of land, build another nursing home on a 10,000-square-meter plot and build the two elementary school buildings on a 2,128-square-meter plot in Pasar Rebo, East Jakarta.

The apartment project consists of two complexes with a total of 27 towers. Prices range from Rp 125 million to Rp 900 million for each unit. The first complex of 16 towers and 3,850 units was completed early last year.

Max promised that the schools and the nursing home would be built next October as soon as the company finished processing the required documents.

The councilors and the company's representatives also agreed to arrange a formal meeting to further discuss the matter.

Councilor Agus Waluyo, however, told reporters that he could not accept the company's explanation.

"The reasons are illogical because most of the apartments had already been sold before the crisis and the management reshuffle was their internal problem and had no relation to the deal at all," he said.

However, Agus said he would not pursue the matter too far since the company had promised to build the schools and the nursing home.

Agus said that if the company failed to meet the requirement again, the council would ask the city administration to file a lawsuit. (ind)