Reforestation funds 'should be returned'

JAKARTA (JP): Minister of Forestry and Plantations Muslimin Nasution said yesterday he would try to get back reforestry funds used to buy shares of a company set up to finance domestic jet manufacturing.

"Reforestry funds should not be used for projects not related to reforestation. God willing, we will get it back," Muslimin said after giving an address at a meeting of timber and plantation company executives.

Since April 1, the government has accounted for reforestation funds, collected from timber companies, in the state budget as nontax receipts. Previously, the funds were transferred into the Ministry of Forestry's bank account and its allocation was governed by presidential decree.

In 1996, then-president Soeharto ordered the Ministry of Forestry to set aside Rp 23 billion from the interest of reforestation funds to buy 10,000 shares of PT Dua Satu Tiga Puluh (DTSP), a company set up in February 1996 to finance the construction of the 100-seater N-2130 jet made by the state-owned aircraft manufacturer PT Industri Pesawat Terbang Nusantara (IPTN).

The shares were later transferred to the Bina Raharja Foundation, a private institution established by retired civil servants.

Soeharto also ordered the ministry to use another Rp 400 billion from the reforestry fund to help finance IPTN's operations. The money was later converted into the government's stake in the aircraft company.

Soeharto is DSTP's chief commissioner, while former state minister Saadilah Mursjid is its president.

Muslimin said the ministry would also ask the state secretary to give back Rp 100 billion in reforestation funds provided as a loan to the People's Prosperity Savings (Takesra), a fund established to help alleviate poverty.

He added that the state secretary had yet to respond to his request, but that Coordinating Minister for People's Welfare and Poverty Eradication Haryono Suyono had said Takesra had already disbursed the funds to its program participants through cheap loans.

Muslimin promised that the 1967 Forestry Law would be revised to give ordinary people a better chance of benefiting from the country's forest resources.

"The current system of forest management has yet to accommodate small businesses, cooperatives and local people. So we need a better system to ensure that logging activities benefit not only large business groups," he said.

He said the 1967 Forestry Law was key to the revision of 138 government and ministerial regulations and presidential decrees.

"I hope the draft of the revised law can be proposed to the state secretary by early July," he said. (gis)