Legislator denies accepting money from contractors
Legislator denies accepting money from contractors
JAKARTA (JP): The House of Representatives' Commission VI for
industry, mining, manpower and investment denied yesterday a
newspaper report alleging House members have accepted money from
mining firms to speed up the examination of their applications
for concessions.
"I strongly deny the Kontan business weekly's story. We have
never even met with any of the mining firms," Lili Asdjudiredja,
deputy chairman of the commission, told The Jakarta Post
yesterday.
The Kontan tabloid reported yesterday that the applicants of
the Seventh Generation mining Contract of Works (COWs) had been
asked to pay Rp 20 million (about US$7,900) per application for
financing the commission's tour of inspection across the country.
The tour program, whereby commission members visit the
provinces where concessions applied for by mining contractors are
located, is part of the deliberation procedure before the
commission "approves" the draft COWs.
The tabloid said the money was given to the commission through
the Directorate General of Mining.
"The House always uses its own budget to finance working
visits by its members on any tour to the provinces," said Lili,
who is from the Golkar faction.
The mining laws require draft COWs to be consulted with the
House before being approved by the President.
The Mines and Energy Ministry submitted 164 Seventh Generation
draft COWs to the commission on July 21 for deliberation.
Consultation
Contractors expect consultation with the House will be
completed during the tenure of the current House, ending in
September.
They are afraid that if the current House fails to complete
their examination of the draft COWs before September, the
examination will be taken over by the new House which will be
installed on Oct. 1. This means the process of examining COWs
will start from the beginning again.
Some commission members, including Iskandar Mandji of Golkar,
earlier hinted that the commission might demand changes to the
draft COWs to give the government or state-owned companies a
stake in new mining ventures.
Mining analysts said Mandji's move had made contractors worry
that the process of consultation with the House wouldn't be
smooth.
Lili assured yesterday that the consultation process would be
smooth and fast as was the process of consultation regarding
draft COWs of the previous generations.
He said the laws gave the House no right to make substantial
changes to the COWs, but only to examine the COWs and, based on
the inputs they gathered during their tour to the provinces, they
could recommend some changes.
The government can either accept or reject the proposed
changes, he said.
"That's the meaning of the word 'consultation' in our mining
laws. Draft COWs are different from a bill, which the House can
change before giving its approval," said Lili.
The 1967 Mining Law No 20 says in Chapter 10: "COWs become
effective once the government approves them after consultation
with the House of Representatives."
Lili said the commission's members had visited various
provinces during the current recess period to gather inputs from
the local people and local administrations regarding the
concessions covered by the 164 draft COWs.
According to Lili, the commission's members will hold a
hearing with the Director General of Mining next month in the
final stage of consultations about the draft COWs.
The commission will then submit recommendations to the
Director General of Mining.
"We hope the whole process can be completed by Sept. 15," Lili
said. (jsk)