'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)