Sutiyoso asked to review chiefs of Pasar Jaya

JAKARTA (JP): City Council Commission B for economic affairs asked Governor Sutiyoso on Tuesday to review executives of city- owned market operator PD Pasar Jaya amid reports that councillors had asked for their "quota of space" at the rebuilt Glodok Plaza in West Jakarta.

"We have asked the governor to review Pasar Jaya's board of directors due to poor performance," the commission's deputy chairman Agung Imam Sumanto said.

Agung, a councillor of the Indonesian Democratic Party of Struggle (PDI Perjuangan), said the directors' poor performance could be observed through the huge number of empty spaces in city-owned markets.

He said there were 3,305 vacant kiosks at traditional markets and 6,372 vacant stores in shopping centers operated by PD Pasar Jaya.

Agung said the commission had a meeting on Tuesday and had decided to send a letter to ask Sutiyoso to clarify accusations that councillors had asked for trading spaces at the plaza.

"Sutiyoso should clarify the report. There is no such quota for councillors," he said.

But he did not deny that certain councillors might have asked for space in the six-story Glodok Plaza, which was destroyed in the mid-May 1998 riots.

Sources claim that councillors from the United Development Party (PPP) had asked Pasar Jaya for space in the plaza, which is scheduled to resume operations soon.

"Only the PPP faction questioned Pasar Jaya's performance during the city council's annual session last week, which heard Sutiyoso's accountability speech.

"They accused Pasar Jaya executives of practicing collusion, corruption and nepotism just because their demand for spaces was rejected by the market's directors," an official at the city administration, who requested anonymity, said on Monday.

Another source said PPP councillors were known to have stalls in city-owned markets, including at Kenari market in Central Jakarta.

Separately, PD Pasar Jaya president Syahril Tanjung admitted that some councillors of a certain faction had asked for space at the plaza.

"They verbally asked for spaces in Glodok Plaza. I asked them to submit a written proposal, but until now I have yet to receive any," Syahril told reporters on Tuesday.

But he refused to give the councillors priority in regard to stores in the plaza.

Glodok Plaza will have 1,827 stores, the majority of which are reserved for the plaza's former vendors whose kiosks were destroyed in the 1998 riots.

Syahril said PD Pasar Jaya only offered 63 shops on the first, second and third floors to new traders through an open bid.

Meanwhile, he said, some 200 stores on the fourth and fifth floors would be marketed by private firm PT Betawi Lestari Jaya.

He denied speculation that the appointment of PT Betawi Lestari Jaya had violated the bidding principles as alleged by the PPP last week.

Syahril said the private firm could sell the stores on the two top floors for between Rp 8 million (US$800) and Rp 11 million per square meter although the actual value was only about Rp 6 million.

"The private firm paid a Rp 6 billion down payment for the stores on the fourth and fifth floors," he said.

He said most of the stores in the basement up to the third floor had sold for between Rp 13 million and Rp 4.5 million per square meter. (jun)