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.