City Council member Gembong Warsono has slammed Jakarta Governor Basuki “Ahok” Tjahaja Purnama for his failure to prevent alleged the corruption surrounding the purchase of land for low-cost apartments planned for West Cengkareng.

Gembong said Ahok should have carefully monitored all land acquisition carried out by the Jakarta city administration, as doing so was one of his responsibilities. He also highlighted the fact that the fake land purchase demonstrated poor asset documentation by the administration.

“Ahok can’t just blame his subordinates in this case, for he is responsible for monitoring all projects in the city. This incident also shows that the city inspectorate was not active in carrying out its internal monitoring,” he told thejakartapost.com on Wednesday in Jakarta.

The city administration purchased a 4.6 hectare plot of land for Rp 648 billion (US$48 million) through its housing and government buildings agency last year. Later, the purchased land was found to have already been owned by the Jakarta administration, through its fisheries and maritime agency.

Gembong said the administration failed to prepare for the purchase properly, specifically by not setting out the precise address of the land, including the neighborhood units (RT) and community units (RW) it contained.

The City Council is hoping the police and the Corruption Eradication Commission (KPK) can uncover the facts of the alleged case of graft.  “We hope this case can be solved, as a large amount of public money is involved,” he said. (ags)

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