S'pore calls up top officials of firms with haze links, warns them to cooperate

Singapore's top ministers have called up 10 of the biggest agribusiness firms based in the republic but with significant plantations in Indonesia, which are being investigated for their links to haze-causing fires.

According to CNA, Singapore Senior Minister K Shanmugam, who is in charge of national security and home affairs, told senior executives of the companies that they are expected to conduct independent probes of their operations.

The investigations will centre on their operations, corporate links and supply chains in Indonesia to determine whether they had contributed to the wildfires, Shanmugam told the corporate officials.

"Haze is caused by fires. Fires are caused by irresponsible business practices. It is not a natural phenomenon,” Shanmugam, who also chairs the Homefront Crisis Ministerial Committee, told the business executives, according to CNA.

The firms that were present at the meeting were Bumitama Agri, First Resources, Golden Agri-Resources, Indofood Agri Resources, Kencana Agri, TSH Resources, Wilmar International and Sinar Mas Group.

Also present at the meeting were Deputy Prime Minister Gan Kim Yong, Sustainability and Environment Minister Grace Fu and officials from the Attorney-General’s Chambers and Law Ministry.

'Not to find scapegoats'

Shanmugam (above) told the company executives that “the intention of this exercise is not to find scapegoats, nor is it to fix blame for public or political reasons”.

"Where there are concerns about a company’s involvement, whether directly or through its corporate relationships or supply chains, we will examine the facts carefully," CNA reported him as saying.

"We cannot allow corporate structures or third-party arrangements to stand in our way of establishing the facts."

The government will appoint a special panel of assessors and each firm will have to engage a team of investigators and lawyers from the panel, Shanmugam said.

"One of your identified companies will have to engage a team comprising an investigations firm and a law firm to advise the investigations firm. These will be from the panel, as directed by NEA (National Environment Agency)," he told the representatives.

The assessment teams will then go through the firms’ records and interview their personnel, along with going through their supply chains, before reporting back to the NEA.

Singapore’s meeting with the companies comes as Malaysian officials continue to insist that there is no solid evidence that Malaysian firms were responsible for haze-causing forest fires.

The Indonesian Forum for Environment alleged in its report that it had identified 21 Malaysian-linked companies involved in forest and land fires in Indonesia.

On Oct 5, two other groups, Greenpeace Indonesia and Pantau Gambut, claimed that plantation companies from Malaysia and Singapore were among 20 entities involved in the forest fires.

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