Indonesia

As many as 21 mining companies and two oil and gas companies in the country have reportedly failed to file transparency reports meant to reduce corruption.

Maryati Abdullah, coordinator of Publish What You Pay Indonesia, a nongovernmental organization, said on Sunday that 18 of the companies that failed to file their Extractive Industries Transparency Initiative reports operated in Kalimantan, a center of the country’s mining industry.

An antigraft group on Wednesday questioned Indonesia’s commitment to join an international initiative designed to combat corruption in the oil, gas, mining and logging sectors.

On Oct. 19, 2010, Indonesia was named as a candidate country by the Extractive Industries Transparency Initiative.

The Norway-based initiative, sponsored by the World Bank, would put Indonesia on close international watch, ensuring that all state revenue generated by the extractive industries is open to public scrutiny.

Local PWYP-Indonesia members support Judicial Review to address revenue-sharing between national and local governments.

On 28 February 2012, local PWYP-Indonesia member, Mr. Carolus Tuah travelled from his home town in East Kalimantan, to attend a constitutional court hearing of a lawsuit filed by local groups against the Republic of Indonesia’s Law No.

On November 8 2011, PWYP-Indonesia members PATTIRO and LPAW Blora conducted a training event for local stakeholders in Bllora district, central Java, on oil and gas revenue sharing (DBH=dana bagi hasil) calculations and projections.

Indonesia has fulfilled all requirements to apply for the Extractive Industries Transparency Initiative (EITI), with the recent appointment of three regional secretaries from oil, gas and mining regions.

The initiative is the product of a multi-party international consensus between governments, extractive industries and civil societies to boost cash flow transparency in the extraction industries.

Washington D.C. – It is a sad and perverse paradox of today’s global economy that some of the very wealthiest developing countries are also the very poorest. Countries possessing an abundance of diamonds, gold, oil, gas and exotic minerals can barely feed, clothe, let alone educate, the bulk of their populations which suffer among the highest infant mortality rates and shortest average life span in the world. War and civil strife, not peace, are the norm in many of these resource- rich but troubled areas.

Op-ed by Director of Global Witness, Simon Taylor.

While oil, gas and minerals are by far the largest sources of state revenue for the world’s poorest nations, these resources, which should help fund development and sustainable economic growth, all too often turn out to be a curse, leading to increased poverty, child malnutrition and civil conflict.

In the 2008 Report on Revenue Transparency of Oil and Gas Companies, Transparency International (TI) evaluates 42 leading oil and gas companies on their current policies, management systems and performance in areas relevant to revenue transparency in their upstream operations.

The administration of President Susilo Bambang Yudhoyono is slated to issue its last package of economic policies later this month to help expedite private investment and spur economic growth ahead of next year’s elections.

Part of this large package will aim to improve transparency in the revenues and management of the energy and mining sectors.