InfoSAWIT, JAKARTA – Many focused to palm oil plantation bleaching. Director of Sawit Watch, Achmad Surambo worried about the minimal transparency in the government’s program. Even Minister of Environment and Forestry legalized the the program, the information access was so restricted. “We tried to get official data by sending official documents to MEF but there is no response positively. This raised concern that there would be potential corruptions,” he said in the official statement, as InfoSAWIT quoted, Monday (14/10/2024).
His concern got escalated after the Supreme Court rejected the material examination on the Government’s Regulation Number 24 / 2021 about The Procedures for Administrative Sanction in Forestry Sector in December 2023. He said, from 3.690 legal subjects registered, only few got forest releases and get administrative sanction. “From thousand cases, only 17 got forest releases and 35 would get administrative sanction. This is not maximal,” he said.
In detail, the total fine to pay would be about Rp 239 billion, forest resources provision or provisi sumber daya hutan (PSDH) would be Rp 61 billion, and reforestation fund would be Rp 13 million. The numbers raised suspicion that palm oil plantation bleaching would not maximally run and would potentially get corruption or gratification.
Ahmad Zazali, Chief of Pusat Hukum dan Resolusi Konflik (PURAKA) reinforced the critics by saying the cases were too slow to get the solution. From 1.192 legal subjects that should complete the data, only 240 realized it, and 15 legal subjects paid the fine. He thought it would need transparency in palm oil plantation bleaching namely what companies would get the bleaching, how much the numbers are, how much the companies have paid. “The public needs to know the information, we assumed there would be bribe and gratification about the numbers of fine,” he said. The slow process and minimum transparency would make the chance to get further corruption.
Gunawan, Senior Advisor of Indonesia Human Rights Committee for Social Justice (IHCS) said it needs to re-evaluate the sentence of the Supreme Court. If the sentence was based on Undang-Undang Cipta Kerja to conduct palm oil plantation bleaching, it was un-constitutional with some conditions. It needs to be reviewed. “The process needs improvement so there would be no new chance to get corruption,” he said.
The Great Attorney searched the office of MEF on 3 October 2024 would be part of the further investigation about illegal palm oil plantation governance. This should be the new chapter to legal enforcement in palm oil sector and be the positive signant to improve palm oil governance in the future. (T2)
