The Indonesian government will receive a lot of money related to forestry. The government will receive foreign money for reducing emissions from deforestation and forest degradation. The money is part of a United Nations program, and will be placed in a Reducing Emissions from Deforestation and Degradation (REDD) fund.
However, corruption will become a great risk, since the government has failed to manage similar funds in the past. For example, the government has failed to manage the reforestation fund properly (dana reboisasi/DR).
"Our bitter experience with DR management in the past indicates REDD management could fail," Harry Purnomo, a researcher from Center for International Forestry Research (CIFOR), said at a discussion in Jakarta, Thursday (19/5).
He worried about efforts to weaken Corruption Eradication Commission ‘s position. The KPK has become the most effective institution on fighting forestry-related corruption.
Emerson Juntho, Deputy Coordinator of Indonesia Corruption Watch (ICW), echoed Harry's statement. "KPK succeeded in regaining the state's losses from forestry-related corruption," he explained.
KPK itself is ready to handle forestry-related corruption cases, especially on the REDD fund. "As long as we receive the report, there will be a follow up from KPK," said M Jasin, Deputy Chairman of KPK.
Jasin further added, even if foreign parties are involved, KPK has a mechanism to handle the case. "We can adopt the G20 agreement on foreign bribery eradication. Then, foreign officials could be handled by us," he said.
The REDD fund, Jasin said, should be managed in a proper and transparent way.
The Reforestation Fund Experience
On the DR issue, Harry explained that the DR has is a national forestry fund, which has been collecting retributions since 1989. The fund is supposed to support reforestation and forest rehabilitation projects. It is financed by a volume-based levy on logging.
The DR has been collecting funds for more than 20 years, and now amounts to USD 5,8 billion. It is the largest source of income for the government from the forestry sector. However, it was managed off-budget, meaning it was managed outside the State Budget.
In President Soeharto's era, the IDR 2,4 trillion DR was used by the Department of Forestry (DOF) as a grant and credit rebate to subsidize the Industrial Plantation Forest Program (hutan tanaman industri/HTI). However the fund was used to serve corrupt officials. The HTI program, on the other hand, failed from the area factor and a lack of productivity.
The DOF also used the IDR 1,3 trillion DR for political projects. Based on an Ernst & Young audit in 1999, the amount of misused DR funds amounted to USD 5,2 billion between 1993-1994 and 1997-1998. Fifty percent of fund was lost after being stored at the DOF. In June 2009, the final audit report from Ernst & Young was not published.
After Soeharto's fall, the fund management improved. The DR was included in the State's Budget (on-budget). Along with strengthening the Supreme Audit Agency’s (Badan Pemeriksa Keuangan/BPK) position, 29 DR-related audits were performed in the 2004-2008 period.
On the other hand, Herry said, CIFOR research shows that several factors that occured in DR fund management could be repeated in REDD fund management. He gave several examples: weak bureaucractic management, because of the many levels of government that will increase the budget; and the vast corruption in many regions.
Other problems include the monitoring, reporting, and verification (MRV) mechanisms. CIFOR said that the MRV mechanisms only focus on carbon emission reduction. "The MRV should be focused on REDD fund management," he asserted.
Therefore, Herry recommended strengthening the transparency of REDD fund management, "by involving civil society in REDD fund supervision, not just government institutions such as the REDD Task Force," he emphasized.
Furthermore, Emerson said that, a Transparency International study reported that nine countries that received REDD funds, have a 3,6 of corruption perception index. A study by the World Bank shows that there are high levels of deforestation within the nine countries.
Emerson worried that, "the REDD fund will not be used for forest preservation, but to preserve corruption."(*)
(*) Leo Wisnu Susapto / Pirhot Nababan
Source from : Hukum Online, Friday, May 20, 2011
