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Indonesian trawler. (Photo: FAO)
Revenue from fisheries sector to be audited
INDONESIA
Tuesday, September 04, 2012, 15:30 (GMT + 9)
The Supreme Audit Agency (BPK) said it will audit government revenue from the fisheries and maritime industry to figure out why revenues are as high as they could be.
“So far, there hasn't been any audit related to maritime income, but we will do it soon,” BPK member Ali Masykur Musa stated at the opening of a technical meeting with the Jawatan Audit Malaysia (JAN) in West Lombok, West Nusa Tenggara, this week.
Ali highlighted that the country’s fisheries sector has tremendous potential, as Indonesia is comprised of more than 17,000 islands and 80,000 km of coastline. Still, last year the sector only made USD 3.35 billion compared to Vietnam's USD 25.5 billion income, The Jakarta Post reports.
In its audit, the BPK will primarily target the Maritime and Fisheries Ministry but will also look at stakeholders related to the sector, including permit holders.
“There might be companies that didn't report their haul. This would decrease state income,” Ali commented.
Ali said that the audit method for the Maritime and Fisheries Ministry would follow in the path of the mining sector’s audit, which has been ongoing for three years.
The meeting in Lombok was the 10th one organised to discuss the implementation of parallel audits related to illegal, unreported and unregulated (IUU) fishing and export taxes. It constitutes a follow up to a 2007 agreement between the BPK and JAN.
The IUU fishing audit report will be presented by the two parties to the Asian working group on environmental audit (ASOSAI-WGEA) in Penang, Malaysia in a couple of weeks.
By Natalia Real
editorial@fis.com
www.fis.com
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