Many city buildings do not have permits

Many city buildings do not have permits

JAKARTA (JP): A city councilor has criticized the city
administration for its failure to set an example to the public by
abiding by existing laws to issue permits for city-owned
building.

Syarif Zulkarnaen, a member of Commission C for financial
affairs, said on Wednesday the administration's failure could be
seen from the fact that only about 5 percent of the 8,277 city-
owned buildings had building certificates.

He said, "It could become a bad precedent when people see the
bad example of the administration.

"How can the administration ask people to abide by the law if
the administration itself ignores it?" he asked.

Syarif presented data from the city supplies office which
shows that only 480 city-owned buildings have proper documents.
However, the data did not reveal locations or other information.

When asked to comment on the matter, head of the supplies
office Dadang Ruskandar said it had happened because in the past
there was no regulation requiring government buildings to have
permits, "because building permits were only required for the
public."

However, under former governor Surjadi Soedirdja, who governed
the city from 1992 to 1997, the administration had started to
issue every building assets with the licenses, Dadang said.

The data also shows that the ownership of 104 out of 5,999
plots of land said to belong to the administration is still in
dispute. (ind)