Govt lodges protest against Freeport management

The government has lodged a protest against the management of Freeport Indonesia for being hindered when trying to get financial documents from the Papua-based copper and gold mining company, Koran Tempo reported on Tuesday.

A senior official at the state ministry of state enterprises said in Jakarta on Monday that the government as one of the shareholders had the rights to get financial reports of the company in advance.

"But for this, we have to pass through a complicated procedure such the approval of the company's head office in the United States in order to get the reports," he said. "We strongly protest the treatment, as a shareholder we should not be treated like this," the unnamed sources added.

At present, the government received the financial reports when the company was about to hold its shareholders meeting. "We want to get the financial document along before the shareholders meeting to allow us to study properly the financial condition of the company," he said following the shareholders meeting of the company recently.

The shareholders agreed to distribute cash dividends totaling about US$1.2 billion in the meeting. The government which owns 9.36 percent stake in the company received about $112 million (about Rp 100 billion).

The government and other shareholders did not receive any thing from this year's dividends because the total amount of their dividends had been paid in the form of interim dividends earlier in the year.

Meanwhile, Freeport Indonesia's spokesperson Sidharta Moersjid confirmed on Monday that the government asked for the firm's financial document, but he denied that the firm has set up a complicated procedure to hamper the government's efforts. "Bureaucracy exists everywhere. We asked for permission from New Orleans for coordination so that the figures and data (we are going to release) are similar (the ones they have)." he said. (*)