Police reports lodged against govt agency, logging firms
TAWAU: Two police reports were lodged on Monday against a few senior officers of a government agency and two private firms for allegedly falsifying information to obtain logging permit approval from the state government.
Asiatic Heli-Logging Sdn Bhd manager Koh Chong Yin @ Mohd Salleh, lodged both reports at the Tawau police headquarters against the private firms and the related government agency for alleged conspiration to mislead the state government.
Koh said his firm is steadfast in its stand to ensure that the law should be upheld and those breaching the laws would be made to face the consequences.
He said the first report was lodged against the government agency for abuse of power through alleged falsifying of information by one of its former group senior officers of a company for conventional logging when it fact the area is a hilly or steep area for which only helicopter logging is permitted according to the law.
Koh pointed out that by falsifying information to the government, it meant one of the companies was able to conduct logging using conventional method in a forest area of 8,000 hectares.
According to Koh, the Environmental Impact Assessment (EIA) report had stipulated that logging operation on steep areas could only be done using helicopter logging.
However, they allegedly failed to mention the presence of steep areas in their report which led to the company obtaining the right to conduct logging operation using conventional method at the site located within Kuamut Class II Forest Reserves.
The failure to report the exact topography of the land was suspicious in nature leading to the report being lodged, he said.
The second report was lodged against another company and the government agency for granting logging rights through the same ex-manager of a company for an area located within Gunung Rara Forest Reserves in Kalabakan.
Koh said instead of conducting helicopter logging, the firm used conventional logging method without the knowledge of the state government.
The second report also stated that a senior officer from the related government agency had allegedly approved roads to be constructed in the logging area linking with the buffer road within the Maliau Basin tourism area as should helicopter operation be employed, there would be no requirement for any road to be constructed.
“We are also a logging firm but we abide by the rules and regulations rendered by the authority which is aimed to protect the natural forest of the state and we are lodging these reports as an obliged Sabahan,” he stressed.
Helicopter logging is an advanced method to ensure that logged areas would have minimal impact on the forest as compared to conventional logging method.