Mega lives in house belonging to state bank

Fabiola Desy Unidjaja, The Jakarta Post, Jakarta

For almost three years, President Megawati Soekarnoputri has lived in a house that cannot be categorized as an official residence.

A State Secretariat official confirmed on Friday that the house Megawati resides in on Jl. Teuku Umar No. 27 in the plush Central Jakarta area of Menteng belongs to state-owned Bank Mandiri.

The government is processing the transfer of the house's title to the state, said the deputy to state secretary for administrative and asset affairs, Rildo Ananda Anwar.

"A team is assessing the amount that should be paid to Bank Mandiri for the transfer of the house, but basically the bank has agreed to transfer it to the state," Rildo told The Jakarta Post and the Koran tempo daily.

A letter from Bank Mandiri dated Nov. 12, 2002 to the State Secretariat stated that the bank had agreed to transfer the house and that it expected the government to pay the consideration within one year.

The letter was a response to the State Secretariat's request for the transfer of ownership of the house dated Nov. 26, 2001.

"We have yet to determine the status of the house as it was lent to Megawati when she was vice president," Rildo said.

In early 2000, Megawati moved to her current residence as the official vice presidential residence on Jl. Diponegoro was being renovated.

Currently, Megawati lives at Jl. Teuku Umar No. 27 and No. 29. This actually belongs to the State Secretariat, and was used by the Golkar Party during former president Soeharto's tenure.

"In reality, we never had an official presidential residence," Rildo said.

Megawati has come under the media spotlight over the past week for her reported ownership of a villa in Sentul, Bogor, and the extension of her house at Jl. Teuku Umar No. 33.

Megawati's husband Taufik Kiemas said on Wednesday that he knew nothing about the villa nor the house extension.

Presidential deputy secretary of household affairs Bambang Irawan said on Friday that it was Megawati's family, not the state, who had rented the house at Jl. Teuku Umar No. 33.

"I just helped decorate the house, but it was the President's family that signed the rental agreement," Bambang said.

The local media has reported that Megawati's family rented the house for three years for Rp 3.5 billion (US$400,000).

Rildo also said that he knew nothing about the status of No. 33 and that so far the presidential secretariat had not informed him of the renovation of No. 29, which actually belonged to the state.