T

he city administration is planning to involve a third party to improve the management of Ragunan Zoo in Pasar Minggu, South Jakarta.

'€œWe want to work with a third party, such as [city-owned Pembangunan Jaya] Ancol or [private-owned] Taman Safari Indonesia. We'€™ll see which one will be the best,'€ Deputy Governor Basukin '€œAhok'€ Tjahaja Purnama told reporters at City Hall on Friday.

Ahok said that the city administration might also bring in outsiders as supervisors within the management structure. He acknowledged that he was disappointed with the current management.

'€œRagunan Zoo lies in a very spacious area, but the conditions for the animals are very concerning,'€ he said, adding that he wanted Ragunan Zoo to be on a par with Singapore Zoo or Taman Safari Indonesia in Bogor, West Java.

The city administration allocated up to Rp 40 billion (US$4.04 million) in subsidies to support Ragunan Zoo.

Ahok said that an improvement would not affect the ticket price.

Representatives of Ragunan Zoo management could not be reached for comment.

The 120-hectare Ragunan Zoo, which is always crowded, particularly on weekends and national holidays, has been struggling to improve its image as a prestigious urban tourist attraction as well as optimizing its potential.

The city administration is also planning on reorganization.

Ahok pointed out that he had asked the Jakarta Employee Agency and the city'€™s secretary for administrative affairs, among others, to decide which staff could be transferred to other agencies.

Basuki said many civil servants in the administration were not in suitable positions.

'€œI once met engineering and architecture graduates who worked at the Fire Department,'€ he said.

Basuki said his administration wanted to put the right people in the right place, including the errant ones.

He said, however, he was not sure yet where to station the errant ones. '€œI am afraid of moving them to the Parks and Cemeteries Agency. I am concerned that they will make it difficult for those who take care of funerals,'€ he said.

Basuki said he was evaluating the performance of officers tasked to deal with the low-cost apartments in Pulogebang in connection with the illegal trading of many units to high-income people and the assault of a tenant, who was allegedly involved in the trading.

He said his administration had investigated the incident and fired the officers who were involved in the trade of the units.

'€œThe ones who sold the units were contracted employees like janitors. But, I believe that the officers of the Housing and Administrative Buildings Agency also played a role,'€ he said.

This week, officers at the city-owned apartments in Pulogebang, East Jakarta, reportedly assaulted a tenant. The assault was allegedly caused by the issue surrounding illegal trade of units at the apartment building.

Ahok said, therefore, that he wanted to transfer a number of officers to other departments.

The case of the illegal trading came up when, allegedly, officers who worked at the apartments assaulted a 47-year-old tenant, identified as Renaldi, and his wife Suhartati, 45, on Tuesday night.

According to Suhartati, the perpetrators alleged that they had given a photo of one apartment management employee to a television reporter and informed the reporter that he had given one of the units to his relative.