A

n audit by the Supreme Audit Agency (BPK) of the city'€™s 2014 financial report highlighted the city'€™s inability to secure and maintain its assets.

The audit agency reported that in 2014, at least Rp 7.9 trillion (US$592 million) worth of the city'€™s assets in the form of land were currently in court due to legal disputes.

'€œThere has been a lack of supervision of the Jakarta administration'€™s assets. The city administration must pay attention to this issue,'€ BPK member Moermahadi Soerja Djanegara said during a plenary session to report the BPK'€™s audit to the city administration and the City Council at the City Council building in Central Jakarta on Monday.

He said that Home Minister Regulation No. 17/2007 on technical guidelines on regional asset management stipulates that those who use or have authority over a regional asset must maintain the asset. The maintenance of an asset includes administrative, physical and legal maintenance.

According to the agency, there were up to 35 plots of land in dispute, which in total reached 1.53 million square meters, or about 153 hectares.

Of the total 153 hectares, the city administration had lost about 11 plots of land reaching up to 67,239 square meters of land, or about 6.72 hectares, to a third party. The value of the losses totaled up to Rp 259 billion.

The city administration has filed appeals for their losses in the land dispute cases. The Law Bureau and the Financial and Asset Management Board (BPKAD) are also currently reviewing the cases.

Moermahadi said other findings included 17.3 million square meters of land worth about Rp 98.8 trillion owned by the city administration that had yet to be certified with legal documents.

He further said that the city administration had not optimized efforts in stocktaking, maintaining and utilizing its vacant lands. As a result, individuals and companies often take took of the city'€™s lack of supervision by illegally occupying them.

'€œWe advise that the city administration provide competent human resources to secure its assets and develop a technology-based system to enforce the regulations,'€ Moermahadi said.

On the same occasion, the BPK also gave the city administration'€™s financial report a '€œreasonable with exception'€ grade for its 2014 budget.

Separately, BPKAD head Heru Budi Hartono acknowledged that its data of the city'€™s asset was incomplete and out of date. Many of the city'€™s assets were also not recorded.

'€œI have asked all district and subdistrict heads to collect data on all our land in their respective areas. We want to make a computerized record of all our land assets,'€ Heru said at City Hall on Monday.

Further, Law Bureau head Sri Rahayu said that her bureau often found difficulties in proving the legality of the city'€™s lands in the courts because they often lacked updated data and legal documents.

'€œThis is a problem that the city administration has faced for decades. We cannot win without legal documents. However, we always present our existing data and our best arguments in court to prevent assets loss,'€ she said.