Great asset mystery: What does the city own?

Great asset mystery: What does the city own?

Bambang Nurbianto, The Jakarta Post, Jakarta

The total worth of the city's assets remains a mystery as the
city administration does not have any clear data on it. A team
established late last year to track down the assets was unable to
complete the job.

"The team tasked to make a thorough inventory of our assets
was only able to show us how difficult it was to trace them,"
Irzal Jamal, an assistant to the city secretary for development
affairs, said on Tuesday.

The City Council Commission D for development affairs met with
Governor Sutiyoso on Tuesday to discuss how to catalog the
assets.

A number of legislators said the lack of clear data made it
easy for officials to manipulate the data. This explained why the
assets that belong to the city administration could be claimed by
private companies, they said.

"That has worried the council. Therefore, we hope that the
executives are serious about resolving the problem," Tjuk Sudono,
a member of Commission D from the National Mandate Party (PAN),
told The Jakarta Post.

The uncertainty surrounding the assets could also be seen from
the contradictory statements made by several members of the city
administration.

Sutiyoso said on Tuesday that the officials managed to trace
70 percent of the city's assets. The value of the identified
assets, according to the head of the City Asset Bureau, Rama
Boedi, is about Rp 7.9 trillion.

This figure, however, is far below a previous estimate. Last
year, the former head of the City Assets Bureau, Margani M.
Mustar, said the value of the city's assets stood at about Rp 72
trillion.

Despite serious efforts to track down the assets, Mustar was
transferred from his post. He was inaugurated on Monday as the
deputy head of the City Education Agency for secondary and
tertiary education.

Tjuk also said that the City Council proposed to prepare a
draft bylaw on city assets. It is expected to become a legal
basis for the city administration to take action against
developers who refuse to build social facilities.

Irzal said most of the city's assets that are difficult to be
traced by city administration officials are the social
facilities, which become the responsibility of the developers.

Irzal classified these facilities into three categories. First
are those facilities of properties that were developed in the
1970s, most of which are difficult to investigate as many of the
developers' offices no longer exist or their obligations are
unclear.

Second are the facilities of properties developed in the
1980s, in which the obligations of developers are clearer as they
are stated on land use permits. Irzal added that it was still not
easy to track them down as many of the developers' offices had
closed.

The third are the facilities of properties developed in the
1990s in which administration was much better. According to
Irzal, most of the facilities that became city assets can be
secured.

Rama Boedi also said that the city administration would
concentrate on the social facilities that became the
responsibility of developers in the 1990s as the city had
relatively completed the data on it.

"It is better that we concentrate on those assets which are
already known rather than track something down that is still an
uncertainty," Rama told the Post on Tuesday.

Sutiyoso said that he supported the ambitions of the City
Council to discuss the draft bylaw on city assets as so far the
city administration had no legal basis to take measures against
developers who shirk their responsibilities.