Governor Sutiyoso told to dismiss directors of ailing city-owned firms
Governor Sutiyoso told to dismiss directors of ailing city-owned firms
Ahmad Junaidi, The Jakarta Post, Jakarta
Disappointed with the poor performance of city-owned firms,
the City Council urged Governor Sutiyoso on Friday to dismiss the
firms' directors on account of the small contribution the firms
made to the 2002 City Budget.
"Just fire the directors of the firms and replace them with
professionals. We should conduct a fit and proper test for the
candidate directors," the council's deputy chairman, Chudlary
Syafei Hadzami, told reporters.
Chudlary, of the United Development Party (PPP), however,
rejected the idea of liquidating the companies or selling them to
private investors, saying that they were city assets and could
still be improved.
"Do not appoint pensioners to do the work of directors," he
said, referring to the retired senior city officials who are
often appointed as directors in the firms.
With assets totaling tens of trillions of rupiah, according to
the latest data from the City Revenue Agency, the 28 city-owned
firms have only been targeted to contribute Rp 55.9 billion, or
about 0.5 percent to the current budget, which amounted to Rp
10.2 trillion.
As of November, they only realized about Rp 24 billion, which
was mainly obtained from city-owned retailer PT Waserda (Rp 18
billion), leisure operator PT Pembangunan Jaya Ancol (Rp 6
billion), and developer PT Kawasan Berikat Nusantara (Rp 4
billion).
Eleven of the 28 companies contributed nothing to the city
budget this year. They included developers PD Pembangunan Sarana
Jaya, PT Pembangunan Jaya, PT Graha Sahari Surya Jaya, PT
Pembangunan Pluit Jaya, and PT Pembangunan Pantura Jaya, as well
as Bank DKI.
Five other companies involved in various businesses that were
also unable to contribute to the city budget were PT Bumi Grafika
Jaya, PT Determinan Jaya, PT Alumindo Perkasa, PT Abatoir Surya
Jaya and PT Pakuan Internasional.
According to city data, the Rp 10.2 trillion in budget funds
were mainly provided by vehicle taxes (Rp 2.5 trillion), land and
property taxes (Rp 2.5 trillion), contributions from the central
government (Rp 3.5 trillion), and hotel, restaurant and
entertainment taxes (Rp 500 billion).
Governor Sutiyoso claimed on Friday that the city
administration had started to apply fit and proper tests when
recruiting directors for city-owned firms.
"We have conducted fit and proper tests, and recruited
professionals," Sutiyoso told reporters at City Hall.
However, he admitted that many of the firms still had a poor
performance. But this was mainly due to the prolonged economic
crisis.
The governor said that he had given the companies two years to
improve themselves, or else be liquidated or merged with other
city-owned companies.
"We will merge the firms or even liquidate them if they do not
perform well," he added.
The administration merged several city-owned developers that
suffered losses in past years into developer PT Jakarta
Propertindo.
According to the data, the company contributed Rp 2.8 billion
to the budget this year, exceeding its target of Rp 1.8 trillion.