Bapedalda must be kept: Official

Bapedalda must be kept: Official

JAKARTA: The Office of the State Minister for the Environment
has come out in opposition to a new government regulation merging
regional Environmental Assessment Agency (Bapedalda) offices with
other offices.

The deputy in charge of institutional policy, Hutomo, said on
Friday that Bapedalda should be kept separate from other offices
to avoid conflicts of interest.

"By limiting provincial offices to 10 and regency offices to
14, we are not sure if Bapedalda can be maintained," Hutomo said.

The government issued Regulation No. 8/2003 limiting
departmental and state ministry offices to 10 at the provincial
level and 14 at the regency level to boost efficiency.

Regional administrations have two years to implement the
regulation. --JP