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Ahok challenges KPK, AGO to probe city's land procurement
Basuki Tjahaja Purnama (kompas
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Basuki Tjahaja Purnama (kompas.com) (kompas.com)
Basuki Tjahaja Purnama (kompas.com)
In response to accusations of corruption by the Supreme Audit Agency (BPK), Jakarta Governor Basuki Tjahaja 'Ahok' Purnama has challenged the Corruption Eradication Commission (KPK) or the Attorney General's Office (AGO) to investigate the city administration's recent procurement of land for a hospital.
The BPK's audit of the city administration's 2014 financial report included a report on the city's Rp 775.69 billion (US$55 million) purchase of a 3.7-hectare plot of the land for a cancer hospital in West Jakarta.
The BPK claimed the price was inflated and said the land should have been purchased for the same taxable value of property (NJOP) as the surrounding buildings. The land, the agency reported, could have been bought for Rp 564.35 billion, which would have saved the city budget Rp 191 billion.
The governor said that the law enforcers should name suspects if the matter was indeed considered a corruption case.
'[Based on their investigation], the KPK will know if it is a tendentious audit or if there really was a state loss. If there was a state loss in the purchase of the land, the AGO or the KPK or the BPK will summon [Jakarta city officials] and name suspects,' said Ahok as reported by kompas.com.
He stressed that the land was purchased through the right procedures based on the NJOP in 2014. According to Ahok, it was not the city administration nor the BPK that calculated the NJOP, but rather it was decided based on zoning mechanisms from 1994 as seen in a database issued by the Finance Ministry's taxation directorate general.
The governor said the price paid for the land, Rp 755 billion, was lower than the market price of Rp 904 billion in 2014.
'If we were accused of violating protocol here, then the purchases of land for toll roads would also be considered to have violated protocol,' he said.
Ahok insisted that the city administration would go ahead with the plan to develop the Sumber Waras cancer hospital although the land status was still in dispute. (bbn)
