JAKARTA. Indonesia’s antigraft body has broadened its supervisory function in the mining sector to include the observation of practices of mining companies that hold contracts of works.

The director general for minerals and coal at the Energy and Mineral Resources Ministry, R. Sukhyar, said that the Corruption Eradication Commission (KPK) last week had started supervising mining contracts for minerals (locally known as the KK) and that of for coal (PKP2B).

“The focus will be on renegotiations, income for the state and environment,” Sukhyar said last Friday. Currently, there is a total of 109 KKs and PKP2Bs in the country, according to him.

The move follows previous attempts whereby the KPK and the Ministry had been coordinating to supervise mining licenses (IUP) in 12 provinces in the country.

Mining licenses are required to obtain a “clean and clear” status, which indicates that the companies’ activities are in line with the government’s environmental policies, free from overlapping land rights, and in conformity with all tax and non-tax financial obligations.

There are currently 10,918 IUPs nationwide, of which 6,042 already obtained the clean and clear status.

Editor: Hendra Gunawan