Singapore Issues Haze-Law Notices to 10 Local Firms and Sets Up Expert Panel to Audit Them

Since Singapore began issuing notices to Indonesian concession holders over the haze earlier this month, the probe has stayed pointed across the border. On Friday, Oct. 23, it turned inward.

The National Environment Agency (NEA) issued notices to 10 Singapore-registered companies in the palm oil or forestry business. All own land concessions in Indonesia or have related companies that do. It is the first time the agency has used the Transboundary Haze Pollution Act (THPA) against companies on the Accounting and Corporate Regulatory Authority's BizFile portal. Before this, notices went only to companies not listed there.

What the notices demand

The 10 firms must hand over information on their links to associated companies in Singapore and Indonesia. They must also disclose where their land concessions are and what fire prevention and firefighting steps they took during the dry season.

The NEA is also pressing the 10 Indonesian companies that received notices over the past week for documents on fires in their concessions and the measures taken to put them out. Those firms must deploy firefighters on land they own or occupy, stop any burning, refrain from starting new fires, and submit action plans to the NEA.

Sustainability and Environment Minister Grace Fu called the notices "an important next step in establishing the facts and gathering the evidence to determine whether companies have contributed to the haze." No charges have been announced against any of the Singapore-registered firms, and Channel NewsAsia said it had asked the companies for comment.

A private audit panel, paid for by the targets

The Ministry of Law (MinLaw) announced a panel of audit, law and investigative firms with cross-border inquiry experience. Companies the government identifies will have to hire professionals from that panel. Those professionals will examine each company's operations, corporate relationships and supply chains, and submit audits to the government.

MinLaw said companies must give "unfettered access" to information and operations. The goal, it said, is to satisfy the government that a company is "not in any way involved in causing or condoning the fires."

That puts the burden on the companies. They have to show a clean record, and they pick up the professional bill to do it.

Senior Counsel Davinder Singh's firm, Davinder Singh Chambers, was appointed adviser to the government to coordinate the panel's work across jurisdictions. MinLaw said the findings will be assessed by the relevant government agencies and the Attorney-General's Chambers. It did not say which companies will be required to use the panel, or when.

The approach targets a real problem: ownership chains that run through several countries. MinLaw said the panel will help establish the facts "where complex corporate structures and commercial arrangements span multiple jurisdictions."

The Indonesian side of the ledger

The fires are on Indonesian soil, and Jakarta's own numbers are contested. President Prabowo Subianto has ordered more firefighters and said burning areas were cut from hundreds of thousands of acres to just under 2,400. His disaster agency and forestry ministry say that figure covers only areas where firefighters are working, not everything that is burning. The government has not updated its count of areas engulfed since July.

Indonesia's health ministry has recorded more than 283,000 acute respiratory infections across seven provinces, about double the early September count. Indonesian police say they have identified more than 200 individuals and nine companies as suspects. No arrests have been made.

Jakarta has also pushed back on foreign criticism. Government spokesman Syahganda Nainggolan told local media early this month that Indonesia doesn't only send haze, adding that the oxygen in Singapore and Malaysia comes from Indonesia's forests.

The annual burning clears peatland for commercial plantations, including palm oil. This year a forecast "super" El Niño has made the dry season drier. Earlier this month, IQair ranked Singapore the most polluted major city in the world, with Kuala Lumpur second.

What comes next

Southeast Asian foreign ministers are set to discuss transboundary haze at a meeting next month. Forecasters don't expect the rainy season to help until December.

Enforcement is the open question. The NEA has the information requests out, MinLaw has the audit machinery, and the Attorney-General's Chambers has not said what threshold of evidence would lead to action against a Singapore-registered company.