Retired officials told to part with official cars

JAKARTA (JP): Former officials of the North Jakarta mayoralty were reluctant to hand over 19 government cars to the office, even though they had long been retired, head of the city supplies office Dadang Ruskandar said on Wednesday.

Dadang said the number of vehicles taken home by former city officials could be more than that because data was not yet available from the city's four other mayoralties.

He said the former officials had broken regulations, as they are no longer entitled to use government vehicles after retirement.

"We have instructed the five mayoralties to take the vehicles... back before the end of the 1998/1999 fiscal year in March," he told reporters after visiting the office's warehouse in East Jakarta with city councillors.

The return of the vehicles, mostly Kijang vans, was needed for the city administration to make an accurate appraisal of its assets for the new budget, he said.

He said it was possible both the city administration and the retired officials thought they were still entitled to use the government vehicles even though they were no longer employed.

Retired officials could buy the vehicles as long as the cars were older than eight years and there was not a shortage of vehicles at their former work unit, he said.

"The vehicles are also not given to them free of charge, as they should pay based on the actual price," he said.

Dadang said the 19 vehicles brought home by the North Jakarta mayoralty's retired officials were not paid for.

To avoid repetition of this practice, the administration had adopted a policy requiring that employees to return property when they were transferred to other positions.

Head of the city council's Commission C for financial affairs Amarullah Asbah praised the city administration's discovery, saying it would help provide more vehicles for active employees.

"We all know we have a thrifty budget and that it is impossible to buy new vehicles for city employees. If the vehicles can be taken back from the retired officials, they can be transferred for the use of real employees," he said.

He said the administration should first inform the city council of any transfer of vehicle ownership.

Dadang said his office also found that 41 official cars had been stolen, including four over the last two weeks.

"After all these vehicles were stolen, we have urged every city official with a government vehicle to upgrade the security system," he said.

He said the officials whose vehicles had been lost were required to replace the cars within two years. "The period can be extended if they can't meet the deadline, provided there is permission from the governor," he said.

Based on the office's latest data, the city administration had 7,671 official vehicles, but only 5,479 of them had the proper ownership documents. (ind)