The United Steelworkers sent a request to investigate to the U.S. Justice Department. The union believes Freeport-McMoRan has violated the Foreign Corrupt Practices Act by engaging the bribery of security forces in Indonesia. The Jakarta Post said national police chief Gen. Timur Pradopo admitted his personnel had received ‘meal money’ to guard the company’s gold and copper mine in Grasberg, West Papua. The union is arguing that those payments to police from Freeport-McMoRan’s local subsidiary constitute bribes. Production at the mine has been crippled and infrastructure sabotaged by protesters. Seven people have been killed in clashes between workers and police and mysterious hit and run attacks.
According to the Jakarta Post a diplomatic cable leaked by Wikileaks also revealed that Freeport paid the Indonesian Military (TNI) and the Police to secure mining activities in the restive province.
A spokeperson for PT Freeport Indonesia said funds given to security personnel guarding project sites in Papua are allowed under the Voluntary Principles on Security and Human Rights, a set of guidelines created by the United States and Britain in 2000 for the extractive industry dealing with security issues. “The support for the government-provided security includes in-kind assistance and monetary allowances to mitigate living costs and the hardship elements of a remote posting assignment to our mining area in Papua,” the statement said.
A member of the Indonesian Forum for the Voluntary Principles for Security and Human Rights, Agus Widjojo, said that security officers should not directly receive “meal money” without reporting it to the Finance Ministry. “It may be true that police officers face particularly tough situations in Papua. But it does not mean they can receive the money directly from Freeport without reporting it to the state’s finance agency,” he said.
Back in 2006, the New York City Comptroller asked the SEC to look into Freeport-McMoRan for knowingly made “false or misleading” statements about payments to the Indonesian military. In a letters to the agency, the comptroller, William Thompson Jr. said he believed the company might have violated the Foreign Corrupt Practices Act.
Could it be a bribe to pay the police to do their job? The United Steelworkers take the position that Indonesian security personnel are being paid to act in the defense of the interests of Freeport-McMoRan in
conflict with their duty to protect Indonesian people.
At the very least, it’s an interesting strategy by the union to help workers in another country.
Sources:
- November 1, 2011 letter from the United Steel Workers to the U.S. Department of Justice (.pdf)
- Freeport claims ‘meal money’ to security forces is legitimate in the Jakarta Post
- National Police admit receiving ‘meal money’ from Freeport in the Jakarta Post
- The Voluntary Principles on Security and Human Rights (.pdf)
- Steelworkers Call For FCPA Probe Of Freeport-McMoRan by Samuel Rubenfeld in the WSJ.com’s Corruption Currents
- Freeport Says ‘Meal Money’ Payments Are Legal in The FCPA Blog
- A Delicious Fact Pattern in the FCPA Professor
- Inquiry sought on mining company by Raymond Bonner and Jane Perlez in The New York Times (2006)
