Police to closely monitor vehicle registration firm

JAKARTA (JP): The police promised yesterday to tightly supervise a private company to which it has given a monopoly over the administration of vehicle registration documents.

National Police Spokesman Brig. Gen. I Ketut Ratta said that the government would not hesitate to review the contract if the company, PT Sakra Bima Mandala Persada, failed to meet the public's expectations.

"We have chosen the company to facilitate the registration of vehicle documents,' Ratta told journalists.

He was responding to mounting public concern that the appointed firm might put its profit above the public interest.

Jana said: "The public has to learn that we also need money even to get the forms from the police."

The company, whose chief commissioner is businessman Hutama Mandala Putra, has been entrusted by the city municipality and police headquarters to handle payments for motorized vehicle registration documents previously handled by the police. Hutama is President Soeharto's third son.

PT Sakra Bima has appointed eight banks with 53 counters to receive the payments and attend to the documents' registration with the city police. All but one of the eight banks are privately-owned.

Jana Yusuf, the company's director for general affairs, told The Jakarta Post that working with state banks would complicate procedures.

"We tried it once but it's quite complicated," he said.

Applicants will pay the company about Rp 10,000 (US$4.50) for the processing of motorcycle registration documents and about Rp 20,000 for car registration documents, varying according to type and model.

According to PT Sakra Bima's managing director, M. Djufri Thalib, the primary aim of the operation is to increase the "comfort" of vehicle owners attending to registration documents.

Previously, vehicle owners have had to jostle in small, crowded rooms at the joint police-city administrative offices, one of which is in East Jakarta -- for residents of East and North Jakarta -- while the other is at the city police headquarters.

Under the agreement signed between the firm and the seven private banks last week, the public can have their documents processed by paying either at their offices or at the branches of the banks. Previously, only the city administration-owned Bank DKI was appointed to receive the payments.

Today, applicants may choose any of the 53 bank counters when attending to the processing of their vehicle documents. After filling in the form available at the banks, the applicants pay the regular taxes plus the service charges.

The forms are then sent by the firm for processing at the joint police-city administrative offices. Under normal circumstances, vehicle owners' processed documents are returned to them within two days.

While it was previously possible to have documents processed in as little as six hours, that involved a six-hour wait in the hot and crowded offices.

The private banks involved are Bank BII, Sewu Bank, Orient Bank, Astria Bank, Utama Internasional Bank, Prasidha Bank and Indotrade Bank.

Ratta urged the company to immediately review its service charges if the public found them too expensive.

Meanwhile, city legislators questioned the lawfulness of the cooperation between the government and the firm after ascertaining that the governor had not given his formal approval to the scheme.

"According to the prevailing regulations, (such cooperation) has to be agreed upon by the city police and the local administration because it relates to the regional budget," said Fatommy Asaari, deputy chairman of commission for government affairs.

Legislator Sahala P. Sinaga of the commission in charge of financial affairs questioned the firm's right to appoint so many private banks as its partners.

"Why don't they choose only Bank DKI, which already has many branches all around the city?" he asked. (bsr/12)