Intercon clarifies confusion on public facilities
Intercon clarifies confusion on public facilities
JAKARTA (JP): Noted businessman Probosutedjo in his capacity as a member of PT Intercon Enterprise board of directors went to the city administration yesterday to clarify a misunderstanding with his company concerning public facilities.
Probosutedjo admitted that his company has failed to hand over social and public facilities the firm built on its real estate complex in Kebon Jeruk, West Jakarta, to the city administration.
According to the existing regulation, any developer building housing estates or other housing projects is required to build a number of public and social facilities, including roads, parks, school buildings and places of worship. These facilities have to be handed over to the city administration as soon as the projects are completed.
Probosutedjo told reporters after a meeting with the City Council's Commission D, which is in charge of development, that the misunderstanding was caused mainly by an absence of communication between employees of his company and officials of the city administration.
"Most employees of my company are busy handling field work, while at the same time it was not easy for the firm's employees to meet officials of the administration," Probosutedjo said.
For example, when officials of the administration visited the company's headquarters no one was available because all of them were in the field. Likewise, when his employees tried to contact officials of the administration they were out.
Probosutedjo visited the City Council yesterday to explain to the councilors as to why PT Intercon Enterprise has yet to fulfill its obligation by handing over social and public facilities to the administration.
Earlier, West Jakarta Mayor Sutardjianto suspended operational facilities to six developers, including PT Intercon, for failing to abide by existing regulations.
The administration has given land appropriation permits to PT Intercon to appropriate 325 hectares of land in Meruya Udik, Joglo and Srengseng subdistricts in West Jakarta and in turn the company is obliged to set aside 20 percent of the area for the construction of social and public facilities.
Probosutedjo said that the company has actually built several facilities such as parks, roads and gutters but has not yet handed them over to the city administration.
He acknowledged that his company has not built schools and places of worship because there are already a lot of such facilities in the area.
"Instead of building new and similar facilities, we decided to contribute funds to renovate existing school buildings and places of worship," he said.
Probosutedjo, who is also President Soeharto's younger brother, explained that building facilities that the area already has would be completely futile.
Meanwhile, the chairman of Commission D, Bandjar Marpaung, who agreed with Probosutedjo's argument, suggested that the developer ask permission from the city administration to contribute the funds to the existing facilities rather than building new ones. (yns)