House to probe selection of forest auditors

House to probe selection of forest auditors

Rendi A. Witular, The Jakarta Post, Jakarta

House of Representatives Commission III for forestry and
agricultural affairs plans to investigate alleged irregularities
in the appointment of forest auditors by the Ministry of
Forestry.

Legislator Achmad Havizi Kurnain, head of the forestry
subcommission, said over the weekend that the commission would
ask the ministry for documents needed for the investigation.

"We'll launch our own investigation," he told The Jakarta
Post.

He said the commission had previously demanded that the
ministry be transparent in the selection of independent
assessment companies.

"But they (the ministry) seems to have ignored our request,"
Harvizi said, adding that the commission would also question
Minister of Forestry Mohamad Prakosa in connection with the
matter.

The ministry has appointed 12 assessment companies to audit
forest concessionaires to determine whether they have applied
sustainable development principles to their operations.

Based on the results of the assessment, the government will
decide whether to revoke the concessionaires' licenses or allow
them to continue their operations.

However, as reported last week, three of the 12 auditors were
suspected of having links to certain concessionaires, including
timber tycoon Mohamad "Bob" Hasan, who is currently serving six
years in jail for corruption.

Separately, the director general for the development of forest
production at the forestry ministry, Suhariyanto, claimed that he
had no detailed information on the selection process, saying he
had placed full trust his subordinates in screening the
assessment companies.

"I made a team consisting of 17 people to select eligible
companies as forest auditors, and I fully trust them. If there's
suspicion concerning the process, I have no idea, you can
directly ask members of the team," said Suhariyanto.

But none of the team members was available for comment.

Meanwhile, a source at the Ministry of Forestry said that the
team selected auditors based only on documents and no on-site
checks were conducted to ascertain whether the companies actually
existed.

"It is possible that a company does not have an office but
exists only on paper. We should be aware of that," said the
source.

The government will finance the operation of 12 forest
auditors in assessing concessionaires.

Each assessment company will be paid Rp 300 million
(US$35,000) for each concessionaire it audits. One assessment
company is expected to audit 10 concessionaires a month.

The budget will be taken from the reforestation funds
collected from concessionaires, which, this year, is projected to
reach Rp 810 billion.

Forest concessionaires are being audited amid pressure from
the international community due to serious damage to the
country's forests.