(kompas.com/Aldo Fenalosa)

Jakarta Governor Basuki '€œAhok'€ Tjahaja Purnama has said that he would report head of Supreme Audit Council's (BPK) Jakarta office Efdinal to BPK'€™s Honorary Ethics Council in connection with the audit on land procurement in West Jakarta.

Ahok said that Efdinal was '€œtendentious'€ in auditing the procurement of land for the planned Sumber Waras cancer hospital; Ahok said the governor was never summoned by the BPK to discuss the matter.

'€œThe BPK Jakarta chapter is tendentious. We reported it [BPK Jakarta] to BPK'€™s Honorary Ethics Council,'€ Ahok said as reported by tribunnews.com on Thursday.

BPK has extended the auditing period by 20 days from the initial plan of just 60 days, making the total auditing period 80 days.

Previously, 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 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.

Ahok denied any wrongdoing and he said that there was no potential loss to the state because his administration had purchased the land below the NJOP prices.

'€œThe land was bought under the NJOP prices. If I returned the land [to the owner], the city would lose [money],'€ Ahok said, adding that the land procurement had even been approved by the Jakarta City Council during the early deliberation of the city budget for 2014.

He stressed that the land procurement had met all the requirements as stipulated in Law No. 2/2012 on Land Procurement; he also said the price paid, Rp 755 billion, was under the market price of Rp 904 billion, when it was purchased on Nov. 15, 2014.

Commenting on the formation of the City Council'€™s special committee to investigate the case, Ahok said that it was the right of the City Council to form a special committee. (bbn)(+)

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