Soeharto orders probe into Bekasi land title forgeries
Soeharto orders probe into Bekasi land title forgeries
JAKARTA (JP): President Soeharto ordered State Minister of
Agrarian Affairs Soni Harsono yesterday to step up efforts to
eradicate increasingly rampant land title forgeries and punish
those found guilty of the crime.
"The President particularly ordered me to investigate
forgeries in Bekasi where at least 200 documents were falsified,"
Soni said after meeting with Soeharto at Merdeka Palace.
The culprits had used sophisticated ways to produce land
titles by using fake stamps and other documents.
"They sell them for Rp 200,000 (US$68) per document," said
Soni, adding that none of his officials were involved in the
crime.
Soni stressed the culprits must be punished severely because
they had committed subversion against the government.
"Their activities do ruin the government constellation," he
said.
They forged not only stamps of the mayoralty offices in Bogor,
West Jakarta and Bekasi, but also other documents, including tax
payment receipts.
"Laymen frequently cannot identify whether the fake documents
are genuine as they are produced on brownish paper to make them
look old," Soni said.
The Bekasi police have questioned eight people for allegedly
being involved in land title forgeries.
One of them was a former official of the National Land Agency,
who was fired a long time ago.
Soni urged people to be careful, when they intended to buy
land, asking them to check the land certificates with the local
agrarian office.
The minister said that the land title forgeries, which are
believed to have involved officials of local administrations, are
becoming increasingly rampant, not only in Greater Jakarta, but
also in other provinces, including West Java and Central Java.
Soeharto also instructed Soni, who is chairman of National
Land Agency, to simplify procedures regarding land title
acquisition and to abolish unnecessary costs paid by land owners
when arranging the certificates.
In 1994 the World Bank and Australian government funded a
national land title program for which Greater Jakarta was chosen
as a pilot project.
The program was designed to help accelerate the issuance of
land certificates. This is in line with the government's
computerization of the registration of all land throughout
Indonesia, Soni said.
Non-governmental organizations, however, have continuously
criticized the bank for its lack of control over the program.
"With the assistance of their foreign counterparts, they have
tried to foil the program," Soni said.
He acknowledged that some irregularities had occurred, but
pointed out the importance of the program.
"We have convinced the bank that it benefits people," he
added.
Soni further said the government issued a decree this year to
help with the issuance of land titles for 75 million plots across
the country.
"We appeal to the public to go directly to local agrarian
offices to process their documents. The cost is very
transparent," Soni said. (prb)