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.