EPA was severely under-budgeted for years -Goolsarran

Dec 29, 2018 News

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By Kiana Wilburg

For years, the Environmental Protection Agency (EPA) has been unable to fulfill its mandate due to severe budget constraints. This worrying state of affairs was highlighted by Chartered Accountant and former Auditor General, Anand Goolsarran.
The anticorruption advocate recorded these findings in a most comprehensive report that was done when he was hired by the APNU+AFC Administration in 2015 to conduct a forensic audit on the entity.

Goolsarran noted that the EPA Board is responsible for approving the Agency’s budgets, work plans and programmes. For the years 2012, 2013 and 2014, Goolsarran said that the Agency requested amounts totaling $933.036 million by way of subventions to meet operating expenditure. However, amounts approved totaled $569.393 million, representing 61 percent of EPA’s requirements. As a result, Goolsarran said that the Agency had no alternative than to reduce its programmes of activities to bring them in line with the amounts approved.
The Chartered Accountant said, “I have reviewed the Environmental Protection Act, the related Regulations, the organizational structure, the EPA’s budgets, and work plans and the activities of the various Divisions. I have also reviewed the minutes of the meetings of the EPA Board, the Wildlife Management Authority and the Wildlife Scientific Authority. In addition, I have had detailed discussions with senior management in relation to the operations of the EPA.”
The former Auditor General continued, “While the corporate governance arrangements and the EPA’s interpretation of its mandate are in conformity of the Act and its related Regulations, the Agency is constrained in its ability to effectively deliver on its mandate, mainly because of budgetary constraints.
“In a recent brief to the Minister, the EPA stated that basic operations such as site visits required for the processing of applications for environmental permits have been delayed.”
Goolsarran added, “The EPA also stated that as a result, there is a backlog in processing of applications which has implications, particularly if developers proceed with their plans without the EPA’s approval. There is a similar situation with conducting audits and renewals.”
To compound the aforementioned issues, Goolsarran highlighted that the EPA is housed in a building in Sophia that has limited office space, and the physical environment is unsuited for the Agency’s operations. In particular, Goolsarran said that the Agency does not have laboratory facilities for the testing of samples. Additionally, Goolsarran noted that the EPA has also not been able to have a dedicated regional presence, so vitally necessary for a countrywide execution of its mandate, especially in the interior locations.

Considering these and other issues, Goolsarran strongly recommended that the Ministry of Finance provide the EPA with adequate resources with effect from the next budget cycle, to enable it to more effectively discharge its mandate of monitoring the natural environment and assisting in its protection. He said that this includes funds not only for the construction of a new building estimated at $200 million, but also for securing facilities to ensure regional presence at least in Regions Seven, Eight, Nine and 10.

OIL PREPARATIONS & STAFFING ISSUES
In addition to being underfunded to carry out some of its fundamental tasks, the EPA’s 2019 budget does not cater for oil preparations. This was confirmed with the EPA’s Head, Dr. Vincent Adams.
During an exclusive interview with this newspaper, the EPA Head said he does not have the human or financial resources needed for the proper management of the oil sector. In fact, the agency does not even have the human resources needed to be an effective regulatory body. In this regard, Dr. Adams said that currently, he has a staff of 97 officers. But for the EPA to be efficient, it needs a total of 262.
Further to this, Dr. Adams said that the agency is continuously borrowing the equipment of other ministries to do its work. It is also unable to do proper monitoring due to its poor fleet of vehicles.
Dr. Adams said, “My staff members are not trained to deal with this (oil) sector. I don’t have engineers on my staff. Most of them have a Degree in Environmental Studies from the University of Guyana. They are hard and dedicated workers but they don’t have the science based qualifications for the fundamental sectors, we have to manage such as mining.”
The EPA Head continued, “I have one engineer, four chemistry majors and three biologists. I want to hire some more people, and get petroleum engineers, mining engineers, geologists, hydrologists, and chemical engineers. So before we can even get to preparing for oil, we need to get our human resources right to carry out our mandate, to fulfill our fundamental duties and oil will soon be part of that…The reality is that we are understaffed. So I have to tackle all these things.”
The Environmental Engineer added, “I have to submit a supplemental early next year so I can get the funds to hire the professionals we need. I have made these issues known to Minister of State, Joseph Harmon and Finance Minister, Winston Jordan and they have been very supportive…”
Turning his attention to the oil sector, the EPA Head told Kaieteur News that the supplementary he is preparing for 2019, will take into account, the money needed to transform EPA into a tough oil and gas regulator.
He said, “Right now, I have $624M for 2019, but that did not take our preparations for oil into consideration. When I was brought on a few months ago, the budget preparation for the agency was already at an advanced stage. My first task when I came on was to do an assessment of the Agency and see where it is…And it needs major restructuring.”
The issue of EPA being woefully understaffed was also raised in the forensic audit report that was done by Goolsarran. But the issue remains unaddressed.
In the audit report, Goolsarran said that the agency needs an additional 165 officers to “fully and effectively” execute its mandate. He noted for example that EPA’s Compliance Department has 27 officers but needs an additional 63 to be effective.

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