Tebet land scandal, case of city losing its assets
Bambang Nurbianto, The Jakarta Post, Jakarta
The illegal sales of the city administration's nine-hectare site in the subdistrict of Tebet Barat, South Jakarta, to private companies was another example of how the city lost its assets.
A reliable source at the Bung Karno Sports Complex Management (BP Gelora Bung Karno) said on Friday that the asset sales was conducted by a former high-ranking official in the city administration in the 1980s.
But, he added, how it was sold to the private sector remained a mystery.
"The land is still registered as an asset of BP Gelora Bung Karno, but in actuality, its ownership had already been transferred to private companies when it was being managed by the city administration," said an official at BP Gelora Bung Karno, who spoke on condition of anonymity.
He said that, when the government wanted to develop the Senayan Sport Complex in the 1950s, it cleared 320 hectares of land in Tebet to relocate residents who had previously lived on the site for the construction of the sports complex.
Of the total 320 hectares, 30.5 hectares -- consisting of 11.5 hectares of an area known as Rawabilal and 19 hectares of green areas -- were not developed, as they were swamps and wetlands.
Based on an agreement between the city administration and BP Gelora Bung Karno on May 24, 1965, the 30.5 hectares of land was managed by the city administration, on the condition that the Senayan Sports Complex management would receive a 50 percent share if the land was sold.
A document from BP Gelora Bung Karno reports the current condition of the site in Tebet as follows: Of the 11.5 hectares of Rawabilal, five hectares have been developed into the Vila Tebet Mas housing complex and four hectares into warehouses belonging to private companies. The remaining area was turned into public facilities, including mosques, schools and subdistrict office buildings.
Meanwhile, parts of the 19 hectares allocated for green areas are now occupied by a variety of buildings, including gasoline stations and illegal housing.
The BP Gelora Bung Karno management wondered how the nine hectares of land could have been sold to private companies without its knowing. "If the land was sold, we should have been informed," the source added.
Responding to the BP Gelora Bung Karno management, the city administration said that it had bought 60,508 square meters of the land from PT. Taman Tebet Indah, and another 36,860 square meters from Loa Sek Tjoe.
However, a question follows as to how state lands could have come into the hands of PT Taman Tebet Indah and Loa Sek Tjoe.
Another source at BP Gelora Bung Karno said that the land had been sold by a former high-ranking official. The source, who also requested anonymity, said that he was informed by a former official of Tebet Barat subdistrict.
"The subdistrict head at that time refused to sign the land sales document, but he did not know how far the sales had proceeded, nor could proceed," the source said.
City Assets Bureau director Rama Budhi admitted recently that the city administration had lost much of its assets due to poor management at private companies and because of the fact that it had no deeds to the properties.
He refused to elaborate further, but he did say that of the 8,000 or so properties belonging to the city, worth Rp 74 trillion (US$8.7 billion) in total, the city only has deeds to 2,600.