Economics team to decide fate of Indorayon
Economics team to decide fate of Indorayon
JAKARTA (JP): State Minister of Environment Sonny Keraf said
on Tuesday he was waiting for a decision from the Cabinet's
economics team over his proposal to close the pulp and rayon
plant belonging to PT Inti Indorayon Utama.
"But if the decision laid with me, it would be that Indorayon
must be closed," Sonny told The Jakarta Post.
He said "there are no other considerations" which could
support the continuation of the company's operation near Lake
Toba, in Porsea, North Sumatra.
He said economics ministers under Coordinating Minister for
the Economy, Finance and Industry Kwik Kian Gie would make a
joint decision on his proposal.
But he did not explain whether a new audit of the plant was
needed by the team to decide Indorayon's fate.
State Minister of Investment and State Enterprises Development
Laksamana Sukardi outlined a plan to have an independent audit
team to determine whether to close or relocate Indorayon's plant.
If the planned audit proceeds, it will be the third after the
Environmental Impact Management Agency (Bapedal) and the American
auditor, Labat-Anderson, who was appointed by the ministry of
industry in 1995.
Indorayon said on Monday that it was ready to be audited and
to bear the audit cost but asked the government to give it two
months to prepare for it.
Sonny, nevertheless, said earlier that another audit was not
necessary because it was too late and would cost the government
more as his office had enough proof that the company's operation
had caused tremendous environmental damage to the area.
Freeport
Meanwhile, Sonny also attacked gold and copper mining company
PT Freeport Indonesia on Tuesday for what he called a "biased"
environmental audit on its operation by American auditor
Montgomery Watson.
"The result of Freeport's audit covers up bad things with soft
language. For instance, something which did not benefit Freeport
was written in the report as Freeport would meet regulations
numbered this and that.
"I totally doubt the objectivity of this American auditor
Montgomery Watson," he said.
He noted that his office found irregularities in the audit
report, especially on the tailing disposal system, environmental
management and the environmental work plan.
Because of that, Sonny said his office would audit, and
perhaps redo, the environmental impact analysis on Freeport.
Sonny added that the government was forming an
interdepartmental team to make a comprehensive analysis on
Freeport, not only on its environmental management system but
also its compliance with its contracts of work with the
government.
"Freeport's problems do not only deal with environmental
issues, but also with the contracts of work, and therefore, the
government will form a joint team consisting of representatives
from the Ministry of Mines and Energy, my office, Bapedal and the
Ministry of Finance.
The House of Representatives recommended earlier that the
government review Freeport's contracts of work as it suspected
the company of violating some terms in them.
Responding to the House recommendation, the mines and energy
minister promised that the government would form a team to
evaluate Freeport's compliance with its contracts of work.
He also promised to review regulations which could have been
used by Freeport as an alibi to not heed articles in the
contracts, especially those on divestment requirements. (01/rid)