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Administrative project confusion
Since the issuance of the construction permit for Islet G to a subsidiary of property giant PT Agung Podomoro Land (APL) in the land reclamation project off Jakarta, the city administration has faithfully uploaded three more permits to its website jakarta
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Since the issuance of the construction permit for Islet G to a subsidiary of property giant PT Agung Podomoro Land (APL) in the land reclamation project off Jakarta, the city administration has faithfully uploaded three more permits to its website jakarta.go.id: islets F, I, and K. Although not uploaded, the permit for the construction of Islet D, issued by former governor Fauzi Bowo in 2010, has been available for the press.
However, mystery shrouds the permit for Islet C, a man-made island developed by PT Kapuk Naga Indah (KNI), which has been half-finished according to satellite imaging from Google Earth. The permit of the islet has yet to be uploaded, and numerous attempts by The Jakarta Post to obtain a copy before this article was written failed.
When the Post asked the head of Jakarta's Spatial Planning and Environmental Bureau, Vera Refina Sari, about the possibility of KNI constructing the islet without any permit, Vera made conflicting statements.
First in October last year, she said the city administration had issued only one permit to KNI, which was for Islet D, marketed as Golf Island.
'The company so far only got a permit for Islet D. It has got the environmental impact analysis [Amdal] for three islets ' D, E and C ' but D is the priority,' she said in October.
Vera said the city administration also wanted to see the effect of the development of Islet D before issuing permits for other islets: 'If
Islet D is completed, [we need to see] how it affects the current, for example.'
She changed her statement later, when the Post showed her the Google Earth image of Islet C.
'KNI has acquired all permits except for Islets A and B,' she said.
KNI has been given in-principle approval for five islets, from A to E.
Vera, however, could not show the gubernatorial decree issuing the permits for C and E. 'I am in the field right now. I will check it again,' she said. All further requests for copies of permits went unanswered.
Before the administration issued the permits for Islets F, I and K, the head of the one-stop integrated service (PTSP), Edi Junaedi, confirmed that the city administration had issued permits for only two islets ' D and G, currently under construction by PT Muara Wisesa Samudra (MWS), the subsidiary of APL.
'None of the processes of other islets has finished. I think we will issue [permits for] Islets I and F at the end of [2015],' he said in October.
Similar statements were delivered by other top officials, like Jakarta Development Planning Board (Bappeda) head Tuty Kusumawati, the city secretary's assistant for development Gamal Sinurat and Jakarta Governor Basuki 'Ahok' Tjahaja Purnama. All of them never or showed or even mentioned the construction permit for Islet C.
The mysterious Islet C is not the only indication of administrative confusion in the reclamation project.
Riza Damanik of the Indonesian Traditional Fishermen Coalition (KNTI) criticized the administration for letting the construction of islets begin before the City Council had approved the bylaw on northern coastal zoning as the overarching legal framework of the project besides the 2012 bylaw on spatial planning.
Another confusion surrounds the contract between developer and administration. Gubernatorial Decree No. 2238/2014 on giving a construction permit for Islet G to MWS stipulates that the company must fulfill certain obligations, including on roads between islands, public transportation, flood mitigation infrastructure, beaches and a waste treatment plant.
Furthermore, its contribution comprises dredging work on rivers on the mainland and giving 5 percent of the islet to the administration. The permit also mandates the company to strengthen the existing dykes as part of the National Coastal Integrated Capital Development (NCICD) program's Phase A.
The decree says the contract has to be finalized within six months after the decree is issued, which was June last year. Up until November, two months after MWS began construction in September, the contract on the obligations had yet to be drawn and MWS ran its own corporate social responsibility (CSR) program outside the obligations stipulated in the decree.
The 20 CSR programs last year included sending a number of local residents on a minor pilgrimage, giving a scholarship to 'the daughter of a fisherman', repairing local roads and renovating an Islamic school in the fishermen village near the project, according to MWS' spokesman, Pramono. 'We want the islet to be beneficial to locals,' he said.
APL president director Ariesman Widjaja said the company had done a lot, including building four pump houses. 'There will be other duties from the city administration in the future,' he said, adding that his company would do its best to comply with the city's requests.
