Forestry office accused of corruption

Forestry office accused of corruption

Yuli Tri Suwarni, The Jakarta Post, Bandung

The West Java forestry office has been accused of misusing around
Rp 4.2 billion (more than US$500,000) allocated for reforestation
in an area on the slopes of Mount Mandalawangi in Garut regency.

Around 100 people from the Association of Mount Mandalawangi
Victims staged a protest at the West Java legislative council on
Thursday to demand that something be done about the failure to
completely reforest the hill side in addition to serious
allegations of corruption.

Protest leader Asep Sirojudin said the West Java forestry
office had only replanted trees on 350 hectares of critical land,
but the 2003 provincial budget allocated Rp 4.2 billion to
reforest 944 hectares.

"After research we also found mark-up practices. The price of
seedlings (for the reforestation) actually cost only Rp 1,000
each, but their accounts say the prices were between Rp 4,000 and
Rp 7,000 per stalk.

"If the reforestation project continues like this, it will not
result in reforested area. It (the project) will only become a
cash cow for certain officials," Asep said.

The protesters also accused the West Java forestry office of
marking up the value of the project overall.

Based on Presidential Decision No. 18/2000, any reforestation
project must be carried out through a tender and the prices of
seedlings in the proposals must not exceed Rp 2.5 million per
hectare of land.

But the local forestry office set the prices at Rp 4.5 million
per hectare of reforested land, then only planted on one-third of
the total area it was supposed to, Asep said.

The West Java provincial administration decided earlier to put
the deforested Mount Mandalawangi as its top priority for
reforestation after a landslide killed 21 people and damaged
hundreds of houses on Jan. 29 last year.

The landslide was blamed on the denuded hillside, and because
state-owned logging company Perhutani did nothing to stop rampant
illegal logging on the mountain.

Last September, local residents won a class action suit
against Perhutani at the Bandung District Court that ruled that
the company must pay Rp 50.4 billion (US$6.07 million) in
compensation for damages.

The court argued that Perhutani had rented out the forest
areas to local people who later used the land for agricultural
purposes.

Responding to Thursday's protest, West Java councillor from
the Indonesian Democratic Party of Struggle (PDI-P) Darius Dolog
Sarebu, who met the protesters, promised to raise the issues that
they were concerned with at council's Commission F for
environmental affairs and natural resources, of which Darius is a
member.

Meanwhile, West Java prosecutor Sartono said his office had
decided to investigate mark-up allegations at the forestry
office.

"Soon after receiving a report from the people, we issued a
letter to open an investigation and we hope to start the
investigation process immediately," he said.

West Java forestry office head Endang Supriadi denied the
graft allegations, but confirmed that only 350 hectares of the
944 hectares of deforested land would be replanted.

"We would only do 350 hectares because we did not get the
money until October and that was just Rp 2.5 billion of the Rp
4.2 billion that was agreed upon. And of that amount, we have
spent only Rp 75 million," he explained.

Endang added that he was prepared to be questioned by the West
Java Prosecutor's Office in connection with the allegations of
corruption.