Coordination lax in explosives' supervision
Rendi A. Witular, The Jakarta Post, Jakarta
The Ministry of Defense, which is authorized to issue licenses for local companies to import, manufacture and sell explosives, said on Tuesday that it could not fully exercise its supervisory role over the business due to a lack of coordination with the police.
Under Presidential Decree No. 125/1999, the ministry is charged with issuing licenses for companies to operate in the explosives business, while daily supervision of the licensed companies' operations is the responsibility of the Indonesian Military (TNI) and the police.
Under the prevailing regulations, the military can buy the explosives itself, but civilians must first get permission from the police before doing so.
"We can't oversee how the police do their job as they are not subordinate to us hierarchically," Brig. Gen. F.X. Hadi Waluyo, the ministry's director of technology and industry, said in an exclusive interview on Tuesday.
Hadi said the government had, in fact, set strict requirements for the purchase of explosives by civilians.
Under the current regulations, the buyer is required to obtain approval from at least six government offices, including the local subdistrict head, district police head, regent and governor, before applying to National Police Headquarters for a permit to buy explosives.
But, he said, the ministry had been informed that the police had issued licenses for a number of small firms to act as middlemen to shorten the licensing process.
"We are really concerned about this situation as there is no legal basis for the police to issue such licenses," he said.
The Jakarta Post has been pushing the police for days to explain their supervision mechanisms for explosives' sales, but to no avail thus far.
To date, the ministry has issued business licenses to nine companies to engage in the explosives business, namely state- owned PT Pindad and PT Dahana, PT Multi Nitrotama Kimia, PT Tridaya Esta, PT Armindo Utama, PT Pupuk Kaltim, PT Inti Celulose Utama Indonesia, PT Trifita Perkasa and PT Asa Karya Multi Pratama.
It is in the process of issuing a license to another company, PT Pani, to manufacture ammonium nitrate-based explosives and detonators.
Public concern over the explosives business has been on the rise following numerous bomb attacks in the country over the past several years. Police data shows that there have been 66 bomb attacks across the country since 1998.
Calls for tighter control over the explosives business have been increasing following the Bali bomb blast that killed more than 190 people more than three weeks ago.
Hadi admitted that there was no system for the ministry to audit the explosives business.
"There are no audits. We only receive their (explosives companies) monthly and annual reports on their activities," said Hadi.
Based on a ministerial decree, the ministry set up a team in 2000 to examine the explosives' stocks and facilities of all the licensed companies. The team consists of representatives from the ministry, the police, the military, the Ministry of Finance, the Ministry of Industry and Trade, the Office of the State Minister for the Environment, the Ministry of Health, the Ministry of Communications and the Ministry of Energy and Mineral Resources.
However, the team has yet to reveal the results of its inspections.