Revealing developers' debts

JAKARTA (JP): The council has urged the municipality to reveal how much developers owe the city in terms of schools, parks, places of worship and other public facilities.

Speaker M.H. Ritonga said the facilities were vital, and that the city should keep demanding that developers build them.

"The public also has the right to know the value of the facilities which have not been realized," Ritonga said.

"This is particularly important to the consumers who have bought homes in housing estates," Ritonga said.

Some 77 developers owe facilities worth at least Rp 600 billion (US$256.8 million) since a 1990 decree on the matter was effected, a city finance bureau official, who requested anonymity, said.

Based on the 1990 gubernatorial decree, real estate developers are obliged to build schools, parks and places of worship and other public facilities; or they may pay the city to build these facilities.

Governor Surjadi Soedirdja recently ordered city mayors to follow up this decree with offending developers.

Last year city officials reported that 238 developers had handed over public facilities worth Rp 784.98 billion.

A high-ranking official said the city was planning to announce the value of the facilities owed by developers, but would not say when. (anr)