Harvest denies role in Monsanto scandal

Harvest denies role in Monsanto scandal

Muninggar Sri Saraswati, The Jakarta Post, Jakarta

Harvest International Indonesia president director Harvey
Goldstein denied on Thursday that his company played any role in
a bribery case involving U.S.-based Monsanto Co. and Indonesian
state officials.

After a meeting with the Corruption Eradication Commission
(KPK), Goldstein said the Jakarta business consulting firm had
nothing to do with the Monsanto bribery case.

"No, never ... Harvest has never been involved in corruption
whatsoever," he told journalists after being questioned at the
commission about the case.

Monsanto was found guilty by the U.S. Department of Justice in
the bribery case and agreed to pay a US$1 million penalty.

The company also agreed to pay another $500,000 to the U.S.
Securities and Exchange Commission for violating the Foreign
Corrupt Practices Act, when it bribed Indonesian government
officials so as to allow it to develop Genetically Modified (GM)
crops in the country.

On Wednesday, former environment minister Nabiel Makarim
admitted that Monsanto lobbied him to facilitate its business in
Indonesia, though the ex-minister denied any wrongdoing.

Goldstein admitted that he knew both Nabiel and former
agriculture minister Bungaran Saragih personally, but he refused
to comment when asked whether Monsanto had paid consultation fees
to Harvest International in connection with the bribery case.

According to U.S. Securities and Exchange Commission
documents, Monsanto admitted that it had retained a Jakarta-based
consulting company to lobby for legislation and ministerial
decrees favorable to GM crops.

Monsanto said that it was a consultant with the consulting
company who lobbied and gave $50,000 to a senior official from
the environment ministry in 2001.

Separately, former agriculture minister Soleh Solahudin
confirmed Nabiel's confessions that Monsanto and its affiliate
company PT Monagro Kimia lobbied him to allow the cultivation of
GM crops in Indonesia.

"Both Monsanto and Monagro Kimia representatives lobbied me
several times," he said after a separate meeting with KPK deputy
chairman Amien Sunaryadi.

Soleh said he met an official from Monsanto when he visited
the company's headquarters in San Louis at its invitation.

However, Soleh asserted that he had never issued any decrees
allowing the cultivation of GM crops when he served as
agriculture minister from 1998 to 1999.

"I don't mean to blame anyone, but I never issued any decrees
favorable to GM crops," said Soleh, who is now a senior lecturer
with the Bogor Institute of Agriculture.

The KPK is scheduled to question another former environment
minister, Sonny Keraf, and former agriculture minister Bungaran
Saragih, on Friday.

Representatives from Monagro Kimia, former Harvest vice
president Michael Villareal and environment minister Rachmat
Witoelar are also expected to face the KPK soon in relation to
the matter.

The KPK said that it planned to set up a team to undertake
further investigations.

Monsanto has admitted that it spent more than $700,000 to
bribe a senior official of the environment ministry, a senior
official of the agriculture ministry, an official of the National
Planning and Development Agency (Bappenas), as well as 140 other
bureaucrats between 1997 and 2002.