Oil and gas sector needs transparency: NGO

Transparency is needed in oil and gas sector to increase the state income and to prevent corrupt practices in the sector, leading Kompas newspaper reported in its Friday edition.

There are cases indicating corrupt practices in the disbursement and use of cost recovery by the contractors. And the local people have also not benefited much from the presence of oil and gas fields in their areas, according to non-governmental activists.

?The weakness in oil and gas sector is transparency. The people, including non-governmental organizations who care about the mining sector, have difficulties in getting access to information on oil and gas sector,? Transparency International Indonesia?s vice director Rezki Sri Wibowo said in Jakarta on Thursday.

In fact, the Law No. 22/2001 on Oil and Gas insists on the secrecy of data on oil and gas exploitation and exploration activities, he said.

David Brown, a consultant at the World Bank?s Extractive Industries Transparency Initiative, said Indonesia received 32 percent of its income of Rp 230 trillion from the oil and gas sector in 2006.

?Indonesia?s income will be much bigger if the oil and gas sector is more transparent,? Brown said.

Brown has suggested that there should be openness regarding disseminating information on the oil and gas sector to the public and if necessry there should be an independent auditor to check oil and gas financial statements. (*)