PALMOILMAGAZINE, JAKARTA – Concerns about palm oil plantation bleaching are intensifying. Achmad Surambo, Director of Sawit Watch, has expressed alarm over the limited transparency in the government’s program. Although the Minister of Environment and Forestry has legalized the initiative, access to information remains highly restricted.
“We attempted to obtain official data by sending formal requests to the MEF, but we have not received a positive response. This raises concerns about potential corruption,” he stated in an official statement quoted by Palmoilmagazine.com on October 14, 2024.
Surambo’s worries deepened after the Supreme Court dismissed a material examination of Government Regulation No. 24/2021 regarding Procedures for Administrative Sanctions in the Forestry Sector in December 2023. He noted that out of 3,690 registered legal entities, very few received forest releases or faced administrative sanctions. “From thousands of cases, only 17 were granted forest releases, and just 35 faced administrative penalties. This is far from adequate,” he said.
He elaborated that the total fines amount to approximately Rp 239 billion, with forest resources provision (PSDH) set at Rp 61 billion, and reforestation funds totaling Rp 13 million. These figures raise suspicions that the palm oil plantation bleaching program is not being effectively implemented and could be susceptible to corruption or bribery.
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. (P2)
