Perumnas investigated for selling out public lands

Perumnas investigated for selling out public lands

JAKARTA (JP): The City Housing Company, Perumnas, will be held
responsible if it is proved to have transferred its ownership of
the 14-hectare tract of land in Pondok Kopi, East Jakarta, to PT
Nusa Persada, which has developed the land into a housing complex
for middle-class people called the Malaka Country Estate.

City councilor Aliwongso Halomoan Sinaga from commission D on
development said that Perumnas is not authorized to transfer its
ownership of any land it has without approval from the city
administration.

Rumor has it that the land was illegally bought at Rp 4
billion by PT Nusa Persada from Perumnas and that the purchase
was made possible by one of PT Nusa Persada's directors who is a
former head of Perumnas III.

Perumnas III is a branch company of Perumnas.

Aliwongso made the remark yesterday when he, together with
three other members of the commission, visited the Malaka Country
Estate to see for themselves the lack of public and social
facilities mentioned in complaints by the estate's residents.

Aliwongso said members of Commission D planned to invite
Perumnas for a hearing of their case sometime in the near future.

Residents have already lodged their complaints with the City
Council because they felt that PT Nusa Persada, the developer of
the estate, had broken its promise to build kindergartens,
elementary schools, houses of prayer and other public and social
facilities.

Under the current regulations, developers are required to put
aside 20 percent of land they develop for public and social
facilities.

H. Mansyur Achmad, the head of the commission who led the
visit, said in his speech to residents that PT Nusa Persada has
no permit (SIPPT) to use the land in question. According to him
it was Perumnas, not PT Nusa Persada, which was entitled to any
permits involving the use of the land and its ownership.

Mansyur said PT Nusa Persada was not among developers legally
listed at the East Jakarta mayoralty office to operate in the
mayoralty.

Suspension

Because of that, both the state-owned Housing Company
Perumnas and PT Nusa Persada, a private-run housing developer,
were blacklisted as of March 18 by the East Jakarta Mayor,
Sudarsono. Thus, all their permit applications have since been
suspended for an unspecified date until the matter can be
clarified and settled.

In a written statement distributed prior to Mansyur's speech,
the residents said they have so far spent Rp 31.7 million to hire
security officers and maintain security and sanitation systems,
to maintain public parks and to pay rental on tennis courts.

The residents demanded that PT Nusa Persada pay all these
expenses because it was part of the company's responsibility to
provide public and social facilities.

Another problem brought up by the residents concerns land
ownership certificates and building permits they desperately want
to have.

There are also reports that in a dispute with PT Nusa Persada,
Perumnas asked the state land agency (BPN) to suspend the
certification of the land.

Addressing this problem, Yusuf Hamdani, another visiting
councilor, said that PT Nusa Persada informed him that 200 out of
around 340 house buyers in the estate have received their land
ownership certificates.

Residents listening to his explanations, however, murmured,
"Lies! Lies! Lies!" in response to his statement that Yusuf
halted his speech for a moment before saying that he felt he had
been deceived.

Sukirman, the head of the estate's neighborhood unit, told The
Jakarta Post that only 100 of the residents had received the land
ownership certificates and that none of them have received the
building permits for their houses. (06)