The Ministry of Trade had issued a warning to mining stakeholders on the forgery of quality certificate of mining commodities. The offense is usually committed by fraudulent traders when presenting offers to potential buyers. It often occurs in export-import trading. As a result, buyers frequently receive goods that fail to match the quality declared in the document. This will consequently tarnish the image of the Indonesian mining as a whole.
The above was exclusively revealed to Majalah TAMBANG by the Director of Export of Industry and Mining Product, Directorate General of International Trade, H. Agus Tjahjono, in Jakarta early January 2009. Mr. Tjahjono’s office only recently had dealt with several cases of export quality certificate forgeries.
The offense was committed particularly by irresponsible traders. In most cases, potential buyers will ask the traders for information on goods and commodities. The traders will initially show a forged certificate. When the buyers are already convinced and therefore placing an order, the quality and the quantity of the delivered goods will not be the same as they are stated in the certificate. The certificates in question are no doubt faked, as their numbers are not registered at the Ministry.
Such is a common practice, especially for mining products. This is mainly due to the fact that traders could get the goods from so many sources. They would forge the certificate in expectation of a quick deal. For an example, there was a case of a delivery which stated as consisting of 6,100 calories coal. What is delivered to the buyer, however, would be of much lower quality than that stated in the correlated certificate.
Mr. Tjahjono also said that in such a case, surveyors who issued the Surveyor’s Report (the so-called LS) are not to blame, since the LS is not a quality and quantity credential for exported goods. Issuing an LS is just among the procedures to open an Export Notification (the so-called PEB), which is issued only when the exported goods are about to be shipped. The quality and quantity of the said products will refer to the quality certificate.
Indeed, surveyors have a hand in issuing quality certificates of exported goods. However, it is these certificates that are forged by irresponsible traders for their advantage. Not only they do harm to buyers of Indonesian products, they also do to the image of Indonesian mining, Mr. Tjahjono was further quoted as saying.
The national police is currently pursuing offenders of certificate forgery. The Trade Ministry assumed that such practice is already around for some times in the Indonesian mining business. The case is seldom exposed since there are very few complaints lodged by afflicted buyers.
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