Protected building owners face inquiry over damages

Protected building owners face inquiry over damages

JAKARTA (JP): The City Council will question executives of the
firm which owns a protected building in Central Jakarta about
plans to renovate the structure and the effort to locate items
which had been missing from the building.

The head of Commission E for social welfare affairs, Edy
Suchro Abdul Djalal, said the meeting with executives of PT
Mandala Griya Putra was scheduled for next week and would also be
attended by officials from the Jakarta Museum and Restoration
Agency and several other related institutions.

Edy said the company should be held legally responsible for
neglecting the 80-year-old Dutch-style building on Jl. Teuku
Umar.

The company's plan to renovate the building does not mean its
responsibility is automatically ended, Edy said.

The councilor from the National Mandate Party (PAN), however,
refused to disclose what legal charges could be laid against the
company, which took over the building from the Ministry of
Justice in 1997 after paying Rp 9 billion as part of a land
exchange.

Before the property changed hands, the building was used by
the ministry as the Central Jakarta Immigration Office.

In exchange for the building on Jl. Teuku Umar, PT Mandala
Griya Putra paid for the renovation of a building in Kemayoran to
serve as the new Central Jakarta Immigration Office and the
construction of a building in Pulo Gebang, East Jakarta, for the
Jakarta State Administrative Court.

The historic building was known as the Batavia Cultural Center
during Dutch colonialism, and was the first such concrete
structure in the city.

The disrepair which the protected building had fallen into was
first spotted by local media in September this year. The
building's roof and floor were severely damaged and a number of
windows, door frames and antique lamps from inside the structure
were missing.

The media reports alerted city authorities to the plight of
the building.

Governor Sutiyoso demanded PT Mandala Griya Cipta be held
responsible for damage to the building and any missing items.

In response, the company offered a total reward of Rp 1
billion for the return of the missing items.

Edy said the company wrote a letter to Sutiyoso recently
indicating their failure to locate items missing from the
building, which the company claimed were stolen by scavengers.

Separately, commission E vice chairman Ishak Iskandar said the
commission would not simply trust claims made by the firm.

"We need to know whether they really worked hard to find the
missing items. However, no matter what, the company should be
responsible for damage to the building," said Ishak, a member of
the Indonesian Democratic Party of Struggle (PDI Perjuangan).

Meanwhile, an expert on the city's historic buildings, Arya
Abieta from the Association of Indonesian Architects, said PT
Mandala Griya Cipta should immediately begin renovating the
building to protect against potential damage during the rainy
season.

"The renovation should be a priority to avoid further damage
to the building," he said.

A guard at the building, Kusno, said on Monday PT Mandal Griya
Cipta decided to begin renovation work at the end of this month.

No one at the company, however, could be reached for comment.
(ind)