Thousands of villas illegal in Puncak

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)