IPOH, Feb 10 — The Perak Forestry Department (JPNPk) is ready to cooperate with any parties including the Malaysian Anti-Corruption Commission (MACC) to investigate the allegations of corrupt practices involving its enforcement officers.
Its director Datuk Mohamed Zin Yusop said the department had cooperated with the MACC on a similar complaint in December last year and the case was still under the MACC’s investigation.
He said apart from monitoring and controlling the logging activities via the monthly forest processing report for each approved licencee, the department and all district forest offices would also carry out regular enforcement activities.
“JPNPk has complied with all the rules and specifications set and successfully retained the Forest Management Certification (Natural Forest) (MC&I: Natural Forest) since 2001 until now.
“To obtain this certification, the JPNPk must comply with the set criteria and guidelines, to be assessed annually by an independent auditor,” he said in a statement today.
He was commenting on a front-page report in a newspaper today which claimed of illegal logging activities and environmental destruction in the state.
The report said logging companies were willing to offer up to RM30,000 to enforcement officers as an inducement to survey potential areas to carry out logging activities.
Mohamed Zin said logging in Perak was only implemented in forest areas classified as production forest where logging activities were carried out sustainably based on the principles of sustainable forest management. — Bernama
