Environmental matters will soon be removed from under the Ministry of Natural Resources as government believes that not only are the duties of both sectors taxing on Minister Raphael Trotman but they may pose a potential conflict.
“Environment will be removed from Natural Resources, it is not being removed as yet, it will be removed,” Minister of State Joseph Harmon told a post-Cabinet press briefing yesterday.
Further, he added “The extractive sector and the sector that is responsible for monitoring or supervising the extractive sector…you put them together is in the wrong place. We believe (it) is not a right fit.”
There had been calls for a number of years during the PPP/C government for the two portfolios to be separated.
Harmon informed that President David Granger briefed Cabinet on Tuesday on issues in the environment sector and they were also alerted to the weighty portfolio of responsibilities of Minister Trotman.
“We were also alerted to the significant responsibilities which lies on the shoulders of the Minister of Natural Resources, in the area of oil and gas and the President was clearly of the view, that this was an area that required (the) undivided attention of the Minister,” he asserted.
“In that regard, the president has signalled his intention of ensuring that all of the issues pertaining to the environment, be placed in one entity, under the Ministry of the Presidency.
He referred to Granger’s visit to the Iwokrama International Centre for Rainforest Conservation and Development last month and the President’s expression of his interest that “Iwokrama become a centre of education in addition to the other benefits which Iwokrama held.”
“So the president intends to take a firm handle on issues in the environment sector so that we can ensure we get the benefits that accrue from investments in this particular sector…Part of the environment sector is already under the Ministry of the Presidency so it is the President’s intention to ensure that all of these entities are in the same place,” he said.
“So if you are responsible for extraction, then the entity responsible for supervising you must be able to do so without having to report to the same minister responsible for the people who are doing the extraction,” he added.
Speaking to members of the Parliamentary Sectoral Committee on Natural Resources, yesterday, Trotman explained that after a series of consultations between himself, President Granger and Minister Harmon, it has been determined that relatively shortly, the Ministry of Natural Resources “will separate itself from the environmental management function because we need to focus more on oil and gas and bauxite and gold and forestry.”
“I will tell you that out of twenty hours in a day oil and gas is taking up about eighteen [and] so it requires intense attention and so a department of the environment is being put together in the Ministry of the Presidency and the Environmental Protection Agency, Wildlife Management and the Protected Areas Commission will come under the Ministry of the Presidency within a short period,” Trotman said.
