Thousands of villas illegal in Puncak

BOGOR (JP): It is suspected that thousands of villas in the hilly resort area of Puncak were issued fake building permits (IMB), but only 50 violations have been registered by the local administration, an official said on Thursday.

The head of the Bogor City Planning Agency, Adrian Aria Kusumah, said there were about 90,000 buildings in the area, the majority of which were suspected of having fake building permits.

"They (villa owners) were probably too busy to obtain the licenses themselves so they entrusted the administrative duties to other people," he said, speculating on the reason for the proliferation of fake permits.

He said three agency staffers had been dismissed for alleged involvement in the issuance of fake permits.

Adrian said Puncak was the biggest revenue contributor for the Bogor regency last year, when it submitted Rp 7.6 billion from IMB payments to the regency, much higher than the targeted Rp 6 billion.

This year, the agency targets Rp 9.5 billion in IMB payments, with 35 percent already received to date, he said. (21/emf)