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AGO raids BCA Tower in graft probe

Investigators from the Attorney General’s Office (AGO) raided the headquarters of state-owned hotel operator PT Hotel Indonesia Natour (HIN) at the BCA Tower in Central Jakarta in relation to a case that is suspected to have caused Rp 1

Fedina S. Sundaryani (The Jakarta Post)
Jakarta
Fri, February 19, 2016

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AGO raids BCA Tower in graft probe

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nvestigators from the Attorney General'€™s Office (AGO) raided the headquarters of state-owned hotel operator PT Hotel Indonesia Natour (HIN) at the BCA Tower in Central Jakarta in relation to a case that is suspected to have caused Rp 1.2 trillion (US$89 million) in state losses.

The AGO made the move following an audit by the Supreme Audit Agency (BPK), which revealed details on HIN'€™s contract with PT Cipta Karya Bersama and shopping mall operator PT Grand Indonesia (GI) to develop the Hotel Indonesia super-block through a build, operate and transfer (BOT) agreement. Cipta Karya acted as the BOT rights recipient in the agreement.

HIN commissioner Michael Umbas said that during the raid, which took place on Wednesday afternoon, investigators confiscated several documents.

'€œMy secretary told me that six [AGO] investigators came [to the office] and confiscated a number of documents,'€ he said on Tuesday.

Although his firm never filed a report of possible state losses based on the agreement, Michael said that the AGO could have started its investigation based on the BPK'€™s recent findings.

Michael also confirmed that the AGO had summoned HIN'€™s president director, Iswandi Said, for questioning.

The BPK report found that a number of violations of the agreement could have taken place, which had caused state losses as a result of a revision of the contract period, a low compensation rate against income percentage and the use of a building use permit (HGB) certificate as debt collateral.

The original agreement stated that Cipta Karya had 30 years starting from 2004 to develop government land in exchange for Rp 355 billion in compensation, equal to 25 percent of the value of the property.

The agreement also assigned Cipta Karya to construct four buildings, but the firm was able to erect two additional buildings, the BCA Tower and the Kempinski Residences apartment building, by March 2009.

The original agreement included a 42,815-square-meter five-star hotel, a 175,000-square-meter parking space and two shopping malls measuring 80,000 and 90,000 square meters each.

Since neither the BCA Tower nor the Kempinski Residences were mentioned in the agreement, HIN did not receive compensation from the profits made by Cipta Karya or GI.

'€œA final report shows that there were two additional buildings, an office building and an apartment building, that were completed by March 11, 2009. Details [about the buildings] were not written in the original agreement and the total compensation for HIN has not yet been calculated,'€ the BPK report said.

The 56-floor BCA Tower serves as PT Bank Central Asia'€™s headquarters and is slated as a premium office with the fifth highest rent at Rp 550,000 per square meter and a service charge of Rp 106,000 per square meter every month.

The BCA Tower was finished in 2009 and has been cited by the Council on Tall Buildings and Urban Habitat (CTBUH) as the sixth tallest building in Indonesia and the 491st tallest building in the world.

Meanwhile, the Kempinski Residences remains one of the most luxurious apartment buildings in the country and is pegged at Rp 5 billion per unit, according to Leads Property Indonesia CEO, Hendra Hartono.

Hendra said that most of the apartments in the 12th tallest skyscraper in the nation were bought as investments and rented out to expatriates, as reported by tribunnews.com.

The AGO could not be reached for confirmation of the case.

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