TheJakartaPost
Please Update your browser
Your browser is out of date, and may not be compatible with our website. A list of the most popular web browsers can be found below.
Just click on the icons to get to the download page.
Landslide in Sulawesi unveils problems in governance of mining sector
Change Size
Search and rescue (SAR) workers rescue miner Tedi Mokodompit after an unlicensed gold mine collapsed in Bakan village, Bolaang Mongondow regency, North Sulawesi. As of Thursday, the SAR team had removed 27 victims from the site, eight of whom were killed, while 19 others suffered injuries. (Antara/Adwit B. Pramono)
A
landslide at an illegal gold mine in North Sulawesi in February that killed at least eight people has revealed a big problem in the mining sector: a lack of supervision.
The Energy and Mineral Resources Ministry, which is in charge of mining, said the officials who were responsible for supervising the site could not carry out their duties because of a lack of funds.
Energy and Mineral Resources Minister Ignasius Jonan said a prevailing law was also a particular factor in preventing the officials from doing their jobs optimally.
“The inspectorates in charge of mining activities are agencies of the central government, but their operational costs are the responsibility of the provincial administrations. This has hampered their jobs,” Jonan said at a hearing with lawmakers recently.
The minister was referring to an article in Regional Administration Law No. 23/2014, which also transferred the authority to issue mining permits from the regency to provincial administrations in a basic contradiction to the mining law.
Jonan said he believes the regulation has put the ministry’s inspectors, of which there are about 1,000 across Indonesia, in uncertainty as they have to wait for the operational funds from the provinces.
“In order to allow them to work, we should provide it [the operational funds], but we don’t have the legal basis. This makes me confused too,” he said.
