New South Jakarta mayoralty office in poor condition

JAKARTA (JP): The new office building of the South Jakarta mayoralty has been partly out of order, despite having started operations just last April.

South Jakarta Mayor Abdul Kahfi told reporters yesterday that the broken facilities are due mainly to the poor quality of the building materials used by the developer of the five-story building.

The office building, constructed on a 5,000-square meter plot of land by private developer PT Balekambang Mulya, took nine years to build.

"PT Balekambang has to be responsible for the repair of the broken facilities regardless of the developer having handed over the buildings to the mayoralty or not," Kahfi said.

He said that many repairs have already been made, including the floor tiles, the leaking ceilings and the poorly installed lifts as well as the water networks in the rest rooms.

PT Balekambang Mulya refused to be responsible for repairing the damaged buildings on the grounds that the company has handed over the facilities to the mayoralty, while its maintenance contract expired last June.

"I have handed over the building to the mayoralty so its maintenance is no longer my responsibility," Suhaemi was quoted by the Suara Karya daily as saying.

Suhaemi declined to elaborate on why his company took so long to complete the project.

Tb Rais, deputy governor in charge of development, said on Tuesday that the Central Jakarta mayor can ask the contractor to be responsible for the repairs if their workmanship does not meet the requirements stipulated in the working contract. (32)