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.