SINGAPORE; Singapore will establish a specialist panel of experts to help identify and hold accountable firms that may be responsible for, or have contributed to, fires causing haze in the city-state, the Ministry of Law (MinLaw) said on Oct 23.
The panel will comprise law firms, audit firms and investigative firms. It will bring together professionals with the expertise, networks and capabilities to conduct cross-border inquiries, trace complex corporate relationships and examine supply chains spanning multiple jurisdictions, the ministry said.
The Government has appointed Davinder Singh Chambers to advise it on coordinating the work of the expert panel.
The firm has extensive experience in cross-border inquiries and complex legal structures, the ministry said. It will advise the Government and help coordinate and manage inquiries across different jurisdictions.
Companies identified by the Government will be required to engage professionals from the panel to conduct thorough inquiries into their operations, corporate relationships and supply chains, and submit detailed audits to the Government, MinLaw said.
“Companies will be expected to cooperate fully and provide unfettered access to relevant information and their operations as may be necessary for the inquiries,” it added.
“The panel will help the Government establish the facts, including where complex corporate structures and commercial arrangements span multiple jurisdictions,” a spokesperson said.
The inquiries will require information-gathering and related work overseas. Government agencies, including the Attorney-General’s Chambers, may face legal and practical limitations in carrying out such work in other jurisdictions, the ministry said.
“This is because there are generally limitations imposed by countries on what work can be done in their territories by overseas government agencies,” it added.
The findings of the inquiries will be assessed by the relevant government agencies and the Attorney-General’s Chambers.
Other agencies involved include the National Environment Agency (NEA) and the Monetary Authority of Singapore.
More details will be announced next week.
Lawyers have previously told The Straits Times that enforcing the Transboundary Haze Pollution Act is challenging because of the cross-border nature of investigations and difficulties in collecting evidence identifying the sources of fires causing haze outside Singapore.
Environmental watchdogs based in Indonesia, for example, struggle to obtain access to up-to-date maps of plantation companies. Without such information, it is difficult to determine the origin of fires through satellite images alone.
On Oct 16, The Jakarta Post reported that Indonesia’s Forestry Ministry had restricted access to information on its mapping platform, Sigap, requiring written approval to retrieve data. It also threatened criminal charges against those allegedly using geospatial data without government authorisation.
Eleven years after Singapore sent legal notices to six Indonesian companies over the 2015 haze, four cases remain open.
There are no penalties for firms that fail to comply with those notices, unlike the information-gathering notices sent to 10 Singapore companies announced by the NEA on Oct 23.
Obtaining the information needed to identify companies responsible for fires overseas remains a major challenge to enforcing the law. - Straits Times/ANN
