TransJakarta set to become corporate entity

TransJakarta set to become corporate entity

Damar Harsanto, The Jakarta Post, Jakarta

The Jakarta administration revealed Thursday that it would
transform the TransJakarta Busway Management (BP TransJakarta)
into a corporate entity in order to boost flexibility in handling
the planned 15 busway corridors in the capital.

"In principal, we will go with the recommendation of the
independent consultants over the change of the status of the
management to a corporate entity," City Secretary Ritola Tasmaya
told The Jakarta Post at City Hall.

He said the status of the corporate entity would enable the
management to be much more flexible in handling busway business,
especially in relation to cooperation with private partners and
busway financing.

Citing the recommendations presented by two independent
consultants to the management -- including Ernest and Young
Public Accountants -- on Wednesday, he said that management would
find difficult to cope with dozens of private companies involved
in various systems of the busway should the administration
maintain the current status of management as a non-structural
organization under the city administration.

"Private companies will require stronger legal grounds for
cooperation," he said.

Besides, with its new status, he said, management would be
able to raise money on its own, for instance, from advertising on
buses or shelters, to help fund the business.

Ritola revealed that the administration was preparing a
detailed draft bylaw to change the status of the Busway
management into a corporate entity, which would be submitted to
City Council for approval.

"We hope the management would have a new status of corporate
entity within two months from now should the council pass our
proposed draft bylaw," he said.

TransJakarta Busway Management has repeatedly complained that
it could not use the revenue it collects from tickets because the
funds have to be transferred to city coffers. It cannot
immediately repair damaged lanes, for instance, since the
authority and funds to repair the lanes is in the hands of the
City's Public Works Agency.

Aside from the Public Works Agency, at least four other
agencies are involved in some way with management of the Busway,
including the City Transportation Agency, which handles shelters
and traffic signs; the City Park Agency that is in charge of
median strips; the City Public Order Agency that provides
security personnel and the City Public Illumination and Road
Infrastructure Agency that handles street lighting along the
corridors.

The management's head Irzal Z Djamal welcomed the plan to
change the status of Busway's management.

"The new status as a corporate entity will boost efficiency
since we would be able to focus on our main task of coordinating
the private companies from whom we outsource in the business," he
told the Post.

"We would maintain small numbers of employees in the company
and allow most work to be done by private companies."

So far, the Busway management only manages the operation of
the first busway corridor from Blok M in South Jakarta to Kota in
West Jakarta. This route become operational mid-January last
year.

By the end of this year, the administration plans to finalize
development of the second and third routes linking Pulogadung in
East Jakarta and Harmoni in Central Jakarta, and Harmoni to
Kalideres in West Jakarta.