Environment complaint agency recommended

Environment complaint agency recommended

JAKARTA (JP): Indonesia needs an agency to handle
environmental complaints, the Indonesian Center for Environmental
Law said yesterday.

"To have such an agency is crucial because the public needs a
place to report on environmental degradation," the center's
director, Mas Achmad Santosa, said in a seminar.

Furthermore, bureaucrats have such broad responsibilities that
it is difficult to handle environmental issues. Investigations
into ecological problems are thus hampered. The agency would
encourage negotiations, mediation and reconciliation, Achmad
said.

There should also be a method of legal recourse to resolve
problems pertaining to pollution or environmental destruction, he
said.

Held by the Environmental Impact Management Agency (Bappedal),
the seminar Methods and procedures for public complaints on
environmental issues was attended by representatives from
government agencies. The representatives welcomed the center's
proposal.

Some participants suggested that the agency contain an
investigation team of experts to look into the complaints and
neutralize the conflicts of interest among related agencies.

They suggested that the public be allowed to have access to
information and investigation findings. Government officials who
do nothing about the complaints should be punished as well, they
added.

Nabiel Makarim, a Bappedal deputy chairman, also welcomed the
proposal.

"Most people who don't know where to take their complaints
bring them to Bappedal. But the agency should really be a last
resort after all other efforts have failed," Nabiel told The
Jakarta Post.

He said that the proposed body would carefully select incoming
reports so that it would not be buried by complaints.

The proposal will soon be submitted to Minister of
Environmental Sarwono Kusumaatmadja for consideration. (14)