Parking scandal probe finalized soon

Parking scandal probe finalized soon

JAKARTA (JP): Governor Surjadi Soedirdja said yesterday that the municipal administration will soon announce the results of their probe investigating the embezzlement of parking fees from the City Parking Authority BP Parkir.

"The investigation is still in the process and we will announce our findings as soon as possible," the governor told reporters.

He made the statement in response to the city council's demand on Wednesday that the municipal administration reveal the extent of the corruption, which, it claims, has caused the administration to lose of billions of rupiah in parking revenues.

Last February the governor ordered City Administration Inspector Djoko Brotosurjono to investigate the alleged corruption at BP Parkir.

"The city administration will take firm actions against any officials found involved," Surjadi said.

Surjadi gave the order after reading a report on the differences between the amount of funds reported by the parking authority and the bank receipts for the funds turned in by privately owned parking companies.

The parking authority's files show that it received a much smaller amount of parking fees than the actual sums paid by private companies to the City Revenue Office.

A report from the parking authority showed that the total amount of fees collected from 147 private parking companies was only Rp 108.84 million (US$49,472) per month.

If the parking authority had been managed professionally, according to the city council, the annual parking fee revenues should have reached Rp 50 billion, far above their target of only Rp 14.6 billion in the 1994-1995 fiscal year. (31)