THE State Government will commission an independent audit into the lease agreement with OneFortyOne Plantations amid ongoing concerns over raw log exports and domestic supply to regional processors.
The audit will focus on OFO’s compliance during the 2018 calendar year with conditions attached to the plantation lease agreement it has with the State Government.
In particular, the audit will put under the microscope issues relating to domestic sawlog supply.
These include age class distribution across the plantation estate, area weighted average clearfall age and tender process for uncontracted sawlog in excess of planned viable domestic supply.
Sale contract lengths for sawlog exports as well as the amount of sawlog and pulp-log exported and if those logs were appropriately classified, will also be explored.
The announcement comes as the issue of log exports and log shortages for processors was expected to fuel discussion at Grant District Council’s meeting last night.
OFO purchased the harvesting rights of the region’s radiata pine plantation estate in 2012 with a number of lease conditions brokered in the $670m historic deal.
Primary Industries Minister Tim Whetstone said the once-off audit represented an important opportunity to reset in a positive way the relations between industry and the community.
“OFO has agreed to fully cooperate with this audit, which will be conducted under the ASAE 3100 standard, set by the Auditing and Assurance Standards Board,” Mr Whetstone said.
He argued the audit provide a high level of assurance to the assessment findings.
“Let me be clear this is an audit of OFO’s compliance with the lease conditions set under the agreement, it is not opening up or reviewing the agreement,” Mr Whetstone said.
The audit will be conducted between May and July this year.
Member for Mount Gambier Troy Bell yesterday welcomed the audit, but expressed his disappointment it was just one-off process.
Mr Bell – who has been pushing for an audit for some time – said he would have preferred the audit trawled through the period between 2012 and 2019.
“Any past practices may not be in existence now,” the independent MP said.
He said the audit may not cover any possible breaches that could had occurred during this earlier period.
While welcoming the audit, he said a broader inquiry was needed into the region’s forestry sector.
“This inquiry is not specific to OneFortyOne, it is about volumes of export and lost opportunities and jobs for our region.”
He said forestry companies from across the region had been heavily exporting raw material.
