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government official has claimed that the many corporate social responsibility (CSR) initiatives of oil and gas companies did not come to fruition this year, especially those of companies operating in Sumenep regency, East Java.

'€œLess than 100 percent,'€ said Upstream Oil and Gas Regulatory Special Task Force (SKKMigas) public relation officer Fatah Yasin in Jakarta recently.

Citing an example, he said that the CSR programs of PT Kangean Energy Indonesia (KEI), the company that operated the Pagerungan and Terang Sirasun Batur (TSB) block from January to October 2015, were only 78 percent fulfilled and only 28 percent of PT Santos'€™ (offshore) programs were realized.

The CSR programs of Husky-Cnooc Madura Ltd (HCML), the group that operates the Madura Strait block, were still in process because the company was yet to start commercial production, he said.

The decline in the global oil price had created unfavorable conditions, which affected the level of realization of oil and gas companies CSR programs, as they had to revise down the budget for programs that they had set earlier, he said.

If the realization of CSR programs had not reached 100 percent before the end of 2015, the remaining programs should be included in the company'€™s CSR programs for next year, without reducing the number of planned CSR programs for 2016, he added.

'€œCSR programs should not overlap with programs run by local governments,'€ he said as quoted by bisnis.tempo.com.

Meanwhile, Risna Resnawaty, a CSR expert from the Faculty of Social and Political Sciences of Padjadjaran University, Bandung, said that based on her study of CSR programs set up by oil and gas companies, there were two typical CSR activities that companies undertook after the disbandment of the upstream oil and gas regulator, BP Migas and the formation of SKK Migas.

Since 2008, funds for CSR cannot be used in cost recovery schemes. At that time, misappropriations were found in which funding had been allocated for non-CSR activities that were reported by companies as being part of their CSR programs.

With the formation of BP Migas, CSR activities are divided into two categories: economic and reform. In the former, companies make cuts in several departments. In the latter, even though not included in cost recovery, activities are still initiated by the companies, and they are more flexible and creative.

According to Risna, there are three types of CSR: community assistance, community relations, and community empowerment.

Community assistance relies on the generosity of the company. Here, there is no mentoring; the community are taught to be reliable in paying back loans. Often the company acts as nothing more than a cash machine, Risa said.

With community relations, the company'€™s main motivation is to build a good relationship with the community and the local government. The company donates to the local government, helping the local administration with their regional budgeting.

'€œThere is nothing with this, as companies, especially oil and gas companies, need to maintain a good image. With a good image, their relationship with stakeholders is better,'€ she said.

As for community empowerment, the companies, aside from helping the community with capital, also provide mentoring to add to the community'€™s capacity. The process takes time, but in the end it will become part of people'€™s everyday lives. There are efforts to improve productivity and to pay back the capital.

In the end, the people will not depend on the company, but will become independent, and be able to solve their problems.

'€œCommunity empowerment is the ideal form of a CSR program,'€ she added.

In the first and second types, the initiative comes mostly from the company (directive), in the third the community acts as the planner, actively involved in the preparation of the program and in deciding on activities that best suit their needs (non directive).

'€œTo reach the stage in CSR program that results in a community'€™s autonomy or independence, there is a facilitator who build bridges with the community and the company (community worker). It is this role of the facilitator to enable the community to differentiate between what they want and what they need,'€ she said.

CSR activities can be said to have empowerment value if the community show high initiative and are actively involved, while the company acts merely as a support system for a program created by a community and based on their needs. This will help foster the competitive edge of the people.

'€œThe most important element in improving people'€™s competitiveness is their total participation in the various processes of the program,'€ she said.