In a continuation of the steps to rectify the ills in the functioning of various departments and systems, the Duterte government has started peeking into all the systems that have been suffering maladies like inefficiency, malpractices, and corruption. The aim, therefore, is to first know the full extent of the ground situations and the internal conditions to know exactly what the state of affairs prevailing at the moment is and then take it forward from there in a systematic and controlled manner.
So, what better than an audit to make an in-depth study to ascertain all the facts about all the aspects and then take stock, decide the course of action, and the remedies to all the ills that have emerged from the audit.
For the purpose of conducting this audit of the complete mining industry in the Autonomous Region of Muslim Mindanao (ARMM), the Department of Energy and Natural Resources (DENR) has ordered all the mining activities in the region to be stopped with immediate effect to facilitate the conduct of performance audit on all the mining operations in the region.
The first aim of the performance audit on the working of the various companies that are operating in the mining operations in Mindanao, is to study and assess the extent to which the mining companies have been compliances with government requirements in the matter of compliances towards state laws governing the procedures that dictate the tenets of responsible mining.
This step is part of the DENR strategy to take stock and plan to fulfill the aims of responsible mining as per the dictates of President Rodrigo Duterte and the new Secretary DENR.
This step was encouraged by Mujiv Hataman, who is the recently elected Governor of the province and was sworn in on 30th June; however, the announcement was issued only on July 12th after all the groundwork including the formation of the task group had been completed.
The task force is also known to be getting ready to review the permits that have been issued to the various contracting firms to conduct mining operations.
It is known that the ARMM authorities, in observance of the powers conferred on them, had been issuing mining permits since the year 2002; now, as part of the performance audit, all the companies who were holding the permits will have to prove that they have been complying with all the provisions of the provisions to ensure responsible mining.
Such of those companies that are not able to satisfy the task force of such compliances may be taken up according to the law with penalties which may include suspension or cancellation of their permits.
The task force called Tawi-Tawi is conducting the audit along with organizations and civil society groups; Randolph Parcasio, a former UNDP functionary is leading the task force.
Umrao Singh umraoz.wordpress.com
Written for: Lars-Magnus Carlsson www.thephilippinepride.com?utm_source=rss&utm_medium=rss
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