Indorayon wants to be audited now

JAKARTA (JP): Publicly listed pulp and rayon fiber maker PT Inti Indorayon Utama urged the government on Tuesday to quickly appoint an independent audit team to determine whether the company's mills were hazardous to the surrounding environment.

The management of Indorayon said in a statement made available to The Jakarta Post that they had suffered losses of hundreds of billions of rupiah from the closure of the company's mills.

"We heard that the government was still selecting the right auditor for us. We are badly waiting for that because we have been ready to be audited for a long time," the company said.

The mills -- located near Lake Toba, North Sumatra -- have not been operating since January due to disruptions to deliveries of materials and supplies to the mills by local people who accused Indorayon of polluting the environment.

The government earlier said that the $600-million Indorayon mills could resume operation if the audit result showed that the company's activities do not harm the environment.

Indorayon, listed on the Jakarta Stock Exchange, has a capacity of 240,000 metric tons of pulp and 60,000 tons of rayon fiber a year. (udi)