Payments from hundreds of defaulters have boosted the coffers of the Environmental Protection Agency (EPA) which has advertised a number of vacancies as it begins scaling up preparations for oil and gas oversight.
“We have been, as you may recall, collecting a lot of back fees from that over 500 permits that were out of compliance and have been able to hire 20 new employees and buy seven new vehicles,” Executive Director of the EPA, Dr Vincent Adams, told Stabroek News yesterday. Adams had said earlier this year that permits issued for almost 900 operations had expired due to lack of oversight.
“As you have seen, we have put out [Expressions of Interest] for specialists and other portfolios since we plan to hire as many as we can afford to take us to Budget 2020; with the expectation that we will get the budget to cover our needs from next year,” he added.
In an ad yesterday, the EPA advertised for expressions of interests for a number of positions including geological engineers, chemical engineers, civil engineers, mining engineers, petroleum engineers, environmental inspectors and officers and attorneys. In other areas, the EPA said that it was seeking persons for filing and data management, communications specialists, storekeeper/stock verifier, drivers, transport officer, office assistant, receptionist and IT Technical Support officers.
The minimum requirements are a Bachelor’s Degree or equivalent from a recognised university with all levels of experience. Submissions close on November 4th 2019.
Adams pointed to a World Bank report for effective management of the sector, which, according to him, recommends at least 40 “highly skilled” experts be attached to the environmental oversight agency.
“We have had the World Bank put together a plan for managing the oil sector and they had recommended an entire oil and gas unit for us to be dedicated to oil and gas. That unit is going to comprise of close to 40 highly skilled experts, including people with petroleum engineering, geological, chemical and other degrees and the experience in the industry,” he said.
“So we have advertised, yes. This, here [the hiring of expert staff], it’s a necessity in order for us to be able to carry out our legislative mandate. We accept that we are not going to be able to fill all of those before the budget but we cannot sit and wait. First oil is the first quarter of 2020 and we are already at the end of October. The provisions have already [been] included in the budget proposals we submitted to the Ministry of Finance, but we have to start,” he added.
The EPA head explained that given that general elections is not until March 2020, the next budget would not be until after that process but the agency could not wait until another budget, “which could take us maybe until August 2020” to start preparations and training of staff.
He said it is against that background that the EPA has already hired 20 new staff and purchased seven vehicles for fieldwork.
In addition, two new offices have been opened in Linden, Region 10 and at Whim, Corentyne, Berbice, with the expectation that another three will be opened before this year ends.
Envision
“We envision to have an EPA office in every of the 10 regions across this country. Yes, we have made proposals in our submission for Budget 2020 planning. All we are doing is trying to get ahead, rather than to wait until after elections. After the budget passage, we will just take up from where we are,” Adams said.
He was quick to point out that “we have to bear in mind also that we won’t spend money that we don’t have.”
Minister of Finance Winston Jordan had told this newspaper that even if government wanted to go to parliament for supplemental funds for the EPA to meet its 2019 proposed budgetary needs, it cannot because of the passage of the no-confidence motion.
He posited that rather than wait until next year, the EPA should begin immediate plans to hike fees since there is ample justification, given that it has been at the same paltry amounts for over two decades, and an increase only requires approval from the agency’s Board.
“He [Adams] has to accelerate that process because I don’t have any money. As you well know, even if I did, the circumstances under which we are precludes me. We can’t even carry a financial [paper] to the parliament [now]. So where am I going to get the money?” he had asked.
Since earlier this year, Adams had underscored the necessity of the EPA being able to monitor effectively and even more with oil production set for the first quarter of next year.
He had said that the agency planned to hike fees for permits and services sometime this year.
Adams told Stabroek News that the funds raked in from compliance monitoring has enabled the EPA “to invest in more resources” and the agency is now “even more able to monitor our operations which should bring more income.”
“It is bearing fruit; those efforts we are putting. We are obtaining employees with the right skills, providing more training. We have been able to start an internship programme this summer and are getting there. We are putting things in place to go out and monitor, which was lacking. We are channeling those resources while we await government’s help,” he said, while expressing confidence that he will get the support needed.
