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)