Bogor legislators form committee to probe Chevron's operation

The legislative council of Bogor regency in West Java will form a special committee to probe the operation of Chevron Geothermal Salak Ltd. in Mt Salak in the regency for refusing to disclose the company's revenue from its geothermal production in the regency, Kompas reported on Tuesday.

The decision to form the committee was made after the company's executives failed to provide detailed information about the company's revenue and operational areas during a hearing with the council's members on Monday.

"We are not satisfied with the answers given by Chevron. It seems that they try to hide important data about the company which we think should be disclosed for the interest of the people," said legislator Lalu Suryade, who chaired the hearing.

During the hearing, the legislators asked the company's executives to unveil the company's geothermal mining areas, its total revenues and community development programs.

According to him, such data is quite important for the legislative council in assessing whether the company had provided a fair income distribution to the local administration.

The government of Garut regency in West Java was earlier reported to have refused to issue a permit for the expansion of a geothermal production in the regency in protest to the unfair distribution of income from the existing geothermal projects. (*)