PDAM Bogor goes private

JAKARTA (JP): The government has changed the status of Bogor administration's tap water company PDAM Bogor from a state-owned company to a private company in a bid to increase the company's self-reliance, Bogor Mayor R.Iswara Natanegara said on Wednesday.

"The decision was taken by the government to improve the self- reliance of companies owned by local administrations," he said in an installment ceremony of 15 executives of PDAM Bogor.

Twenty-one civil servants from the Bogor administration worked at PDAM Bogor, he said.

As of Wednesday, five of the 21 had been reassigned to their original departments in the Bogor administration, he said.

According to Iswara, the Ministry of Home Affairs' director general of public administration and regional autonomy issued a decree changing the status of state-owned companies owned by local administrations to private companies.

The Office of the Coordinating Minister for Development Supervision and State Administrative Reforms has also issued a decree to remove state employees from positions at companies owned by local administrations and return them to positions within the administrations, he said.

After going private, Iswara expected PDAM Bogor's staff to exercise professionalism in running the company in order to provide the public with high quality water.(24/asa)