Riau Islands Ombudsman Receives 278 Reports, Average Land Problems

Ombudsman illustration. (Ombudsman doc)

KEPRI - The Office of the Ombudsman Representative for the Riau Islands (Kepri) has received 278 reports of public complaints during the first semester of 2022. Hundreds of reports are dominated by agrarian or land issues.

"Just like last year, reports related to land were the most dominant," said Head of the Riau Islands Ombudsman Representative, Lagat Parroha Patar Siadari, in Tanjungpinang, quoted from Antara, Tuesday, July 12.

Lagat explained that more land issues occurred in Batam City, for example the dispute between two land rights certificates issued in different years, but when they wanted to register for the transfer of rights, village/kelurahan officials were reluctant to sign them.

"We saw that there were two letters on the basis of land rights, one of which was suspected to be fake by the previous official. But the official concerned has died, and one has been promoted to sub-district head," he said.

Another land issue, he said, is the National Land Agency (BPN) which issues multiple or overlapping certificates, namely certificates for a plot of land are issued by more than one certificate whose locations overlap in whole or in part.

Furthermore, there is also a Complete Systematic Land Registration Program (PTSL) which does not meet the requirements, because there are differences in land when measured in the field with a certificate.

"For Karimun Regency, we have ordered the repair of 12 PTSL certificates, because there are differences in land area," he said.

Lagat stated that other complaints that were received from the public were related to public services related to compliance with access to education, health, population administration, and licensing.

"If we comply, we will give the green zone predicate, the yellow zone is less compliant. If we don't comply at all, we will get a red zone," he said.

The next most complaints report is about civil and political rights related to freedom of information. For example, people still have difficulty accessing documents to an agency or public service.

"For example, when residents ask for documents to the DPRD secretariat but they are not fulfilled, they should be able to report it to the Public Information Commission, but many still report to the Ombudsman," said Lagat.

Lagat also conveyed that of the 278 public complaints reports this year, some of them have been followed up and some are still in development or on progress.

"This means that some of the organizers/public servants have realized their mistakes," he said.

Last year, said Lagat, the Riau Islands Representative Ombudsman received as many as 428 public complaints reports, with 84 percent of them being successfully resolved.

Meanwhile, by 2022, his party targets to receive a total of 530 reports of public complaints.

For people who want to make a complaint report to the Ombudsman Representative of the Riau Islands, they can access the WhatsApp Complaints channel to the number 08119813737. It can also be via email [email protected], telephone complaints 0778-47599, or come in person/letter to the Graha Pena Building Floor 1, Room 103, Jalan Raya Batam Center, Teluk Tering, Batam City, Batam City, Riau Islands.