'Recalcitrant firm must be punished'

'Recalcitrant firm must be punished'

JAKARTA (JP): The city council is pressing its demand that the
administration take action against developer PT Pacific Corponusa
for not honoring its obligation to build public facilities.

Councilors have proposed that the city administration suspend
the company's license to build up-market apartments and a
shopping center in the business district of Mangga Dua, Central
Jakarta.

"The developers' activities must be suspended," said councilor
Saud Rachman from the council's Commission D in charge of public
works while inspecting the project on Thursday.

Saud, a councilor from the Moslem-oriented United Development
Party, has been spearheading the "campaign" for action against PT
Pacific Corponusa.

The developer is constructing an apartment complex, Pangeran
Jayakarta Palace, and a shopping center, Pangeran Jayakarta
Center, on a 19,463-square-meter plot of land in Mangga Dua (not
on Jl. S. Parman as printed in the June 24 edition of The Jakarta
Post).

A 1990 decree states that any developer intending to
appropriate land to build commercial facilities must set aside 20
percent of it to build low-cost apartments and other public
facilities.

He said the developer has been repeatedly warned by the
municipal administration for its failure to meet the municipal
administration's requirements.

"The best way to deal with the issue is to suspend the
companies until it meets all the requirements," Saud said.

PT Pacific Corponusa has been fined Rp 600 million
(US$267,000) for a land appropriation violation. Part of the
money is being used to restore the Mangga Dua Selatan primary
school buildings.

Last week, the company's chief commissioner Andy Sofyan said
that PT Pacific Corponusa plans to build the facilities in
question.

"The development of the public facilities has been delayed due
to some technical problems," he said.

Legislator Ratih Purnami, who also visited the location,
suggested that the developer furnish the school with adequate
restrooms and plants.

Meanwhile Bandjar Marpaung, the commission D chairman,
questioned the quality of the building material of the school
under renovation.

Budi Haryanto, the developer's legal consultant, promised that
the company would finish the school building renovation two weeks
before this year's academic year begins.

He acknowledged that the developer has not yet consulted the
municipal administration on the location of the low-cost
apartments to be built.

"Since the administration has not determined the location, we
cannot start building," he said.

Saud said that the developer should have taken the initiative
to select and propose a location to the city administration
instead of waiting for the municipality to decide.(32)