UN outlines plan to combat corruption within Indonesia palm oil industry

The UN Office on Drugs and Crime (UNODC) set out on Wednesday to work directly with Indonesia’s Palm Oil Industry in order to combat corruption in the country.

This comes after the UNODC organized a workshop to bring together different private and public actors, such as the Indonesian Palm Oil Association and the national Corruption Eradication Commission (KPK). The UN agency stressed that integrity in the private sector is especially important and that a “collective effort” is necessary for an economically and environmentally sustainable future.

Indonesian palm oil companies have been heavily criticized for weak anti-graft policies and a lack of transparency. A report by NGO Transparency International found that this lack of transparency risks malpractices such as bribery and illegal land acquisitions to remain unknown and put the palm oil industry at a high risk of corruption.

This month, Indonesian prosecutors launched an investigation into the Ministry of Environment and Forestry on the grounds of corruption related to the palm oil industry. Currently, an area of 3.37 million hectares of oil palm plantations is illegal under Indonesian law because they were established on land protected as forest areas.

The government introduced an amnesty law in 2020 which saves the plantation operators from criminal prosecution if they obtain a proper permit within three years. Even though the law has been repealed and replaced, the ministry is still not collecting the major part of the fees that would constitute the reparations, prompting allegations of corruption. A corruption court had recently sentenced the former agriculture minister to 10 years over graft charges.

As the guardian of the international law framework on corruption, the UNODC oversees the implementation of the United Nations Convention against Corruption (UNCAC), the only legally binding universal instrument on corruption. It imposes measures to foster anti-corruption reforms and legislative changes on a national level and its progress is reviewed on a circular basis.

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Tags: transparency, Indonesia, palm oil, Indonesian Palm Oil Association, corruption, UNODC, UN Office on Drugs and Crime