Govt told to repossess state assets

The Jakarta Post ,  Jakarta   |  Wed, 05/07/2008 9:42 AM  |  National

The Corruption Eradication Commission (KPK) has asked ministerial offices to step up the recovery of state assets currently held by former officials, civil servants or other parties.

"There have been a lot of problems with state-owned assets. The public knows about this, so we ask the offices not to turn a blind eye to the problem," KPK deputy chairman Haryono Umar said Tuesday after meeting with representatives from 10 state institutions.

The commission hosted the forum on assessing and recovering state-owned assets, attended by officials from the Religious Affairs, Home, Social Services, Finance and other ministries, at the KPK office in Central Jakarta.

Finance Ministry secretary-general Mulia P. Nasution said the common problems faced by ministerial offices in inventorying their assets were ownership certification and reassessment of the value of state properties.

"There is a special task force in place at each ministry working to clear the status of property and to ascertain its usage for state benefits," he said.

Mulia said many government offices across the country were in disputes with various parties, including former officials and employees, over illegal property usage and ownership.

The Social Services Ministry, for example, is working on the legal status of four properties, including a 7,900 square-meter building worth Rp 8.3 billion (US$900,000) in Cawang, East Jakarta.

The Religious Affairs Ministry is working on certification problems for 22 plots of land, including 10,000 square meters of land in Central Jakarta.

The KPK has accused former regional infrastructure minister Soenarno of illegally acquiring his official residence last year after an alleged series of changes to its status in 2004 from government to private property.

Two officials of the Public Works Ministry have been accused of similar illegal acquisitions.

State-owned railway company PT Kereta Api Indonesia (PT KAI) has also been working to repossess 41 official duty houses in Bandung and Jakarta, worth a total of more than Rp 300 billion, which are currently occupied by retired officials or people from outside the company.

Haryono said the graft body would file a proposal to review expired laws on illegal land usage and to amend several internal regulations at various ministerial offices that have allowed retired officials to occupy state properties.

"The National Land Agency, for example, is still using a 1960 law on usage of land without permission whose penalty is a mere Rp 5,000 fine or three-month prison term," he said.

Haryono said disputes over state-ownership status would eventually lead to questioning of the land agency, especially over the issuance of land certificates to other parties. (dre)

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