MGB hopes to accelerate audits of miners’ social dev’t performance

THE Mines and Geosciences Bureau (MGB) said it is targeting to complete by the end of the year an audit of all miners’ compliance with their social development obligations, accelerating the process which typically examines onethird of the industry each year.

“We are looking to see if all operating mines, both metallic and non-metallic, can be audited this year,” according to the head of MGB’s Mine Safety, Environment and Social Development Division Chief Engineer Rodolfo L. Velasco, Jr. on Tuesday in an interview with BusinessWorld at the MGB’s headquarters in Quezon City.

The country currently has 41 metal mines and 65 non- metal mines in operational phase.

He added that the social development audits are required by law but in practice groups of 30 are audited in any given year.

This means some mining companies get to be audited only once in about three years in terms of its social development and management programs performance, according to Mr. Velasco, who said the process in putting together a comprehensive report places heavy demands on MGB personnel.

“There are intervening targets, stages of investigation, seminars (that go into) the comprehensive report,” Mr. Velasco said. “If all we did was audit that would be easy — it would be done in a month.”

Under the law, mining companies’ social development management performance is assessed based on their environmental and cultural impact, community health, education, livelihood and infrastructure projects as committed in their five-year plans, which are mandatory before the government allows operations to proceed.

Monthly internal monitoring of the social development program is done jointly by a mining company’s community relations officer and representatives of its host and neighboring communities.

The company officer then provides quarterly and annual reports of accomplishments.

Meanwhile, the MGB central office conducts audits to ensure the semi-annual monitoring was performed.

Mr. Velasco said that bureau has completed audits on around 30 mining companies since it started the process in March, keeping the target of a full industry audit for the year within reach. —