JP/5/HOUSE

JP/5/HOUSE

Construction of governor's residence queried

Rusman
Samarinda

A councillor has lashed out at the ongoing construction of the
official residence of the East Kalimantan governor, saying that
the decision to go ahead with it had bypassed the East Kalimantan
legislative council.

Rikmo Kuswanto, a councillor and a member of the budget
committee of the provincial legislative council, also regretted
that the construction had proceeded without approval from the
provincial legislative council.

"The old official residence has already been demolished,
while, at the same time, we were never notified about the budget
of the building construction.

"We regret it. The executive should have proposed the budget
to the council and it had to be approved by us before they
proceeded further with construction of the new building," Rikmo
said on Monday.

He also questioned the staggering amount of money that was
poured into construction of the building, totaling Rp 41 billion
(US$ 4.3 million). The amount was far from normal for the
construction of an upmarket house in the province, which normally
stands at Rp 3 billion (US$ 315,789); thus there were suspicions
that the project was marked up.

Rikmo went on that the construction of the house should have
been approved by the legislative council.

"There should have been a transparent budget, because the
building will be a state asset and its construction is using
public money," said Rikmo.

Construction of the building will be carried out by PT Total
Bangun Persada, which presented the design of the building to the
East Kalimantan government on May 22 in Jakarta. The presentation
was attended by East Kalimantan provincial administration
secretary Syaiful Teteng.

Rikmo suggested that, in order to avoid controversy, the
provincial administration had to explain properly the
construction and the budget for it to the provincial legislative
council.

"We agree that the house had either to be renovated or
demolished and then replaced by a new one, but the executive has
to be transparent and follow the procedures in this matter," he
said.

Separately, Syaiful said that the provincial government
accepted the criticism. He admitted that the government had
prepared a draft budget for the construction, but it had yet to
present it to the council.

He added that the government was ready to present the final
draft to the provincial administration in a week's time.

Residence Draft Budget
=============================================================
1. Feasibility Study Rp 108.6 million
2. Building Demolition Rp 465.5 million
3. Building Construction Rp 8.6 billion
4. Water and Electricity

Installation Works Rp 5.4 billion
5. Architectural Works Rp 15.6 billion
6. Ornamental Works Rp 949.6 million
7. Landscape Works Rp 2.6 billion
8. Interior and Furniture Rp 2.5 billion
9. Furniture Modification Rp 822.6 million
10. Tax (10 percent) Rp 3.9 billion
=======================================================
Total Rp 41 billion

Source: East Kalimantan provincial administration