An Open Letter to the President on the Absence of a Board of Directors for the Environmental Protection Agency, an Environmental Assessment Board, and an Environmental Tribunal
Excellency:
As the Government of Guyana prepares to showcase Guyana at the International Energy Conference and Expo Guyana starting February 14, 2022, we must recognize that systemic weaknesses in public environmental management pose risks not only to the people of Guyana but also “Environmental and Social Governance” (ESG) risks to investors.
The Environmental Protection Agency (EPA) has been operating without a legally constituted Board of Directors for some four months now (Official Gazette number 242/2021 – Legal Supplement – Government Notice, October 28, 2021 – the term of the Board of Directors expired since October 2022). I wrote to the Executive Director, Mr. Khemraj Parsram, on December 20, 2022, to enquire about arrangements for his supervision but he has not acknowledged my initial mail or subsequent reminders.
There is presently no legally constituted Environmental Assessment Board (EAB), to which one may lodge objections against the Environmental Protection Agency’s (EPA)’s decisions regarding Environmental Permits. The term of the EAB expired in December 2022 (Official Gazette number 50/2022 – Legal Supplement B – Government Notice, February 18, 2022). The Environmental Protection Agency continues to make decisions with respect to permits, such as the permit for the proposed natural gas fired powerplant, and publish notices advising the public of their right to appeal to the EAB, when there is, in fact, no appeal remedy in place.