Absence of budget, COVID stymie work of EPA – Director

Guyana’s last budget was in November 2018. Political events and a global pandemic have since overtaken the country and resulted in Government departments having to scale down their work. The Environmental Protection Agency (EPA) is no exception.

In an interview with this publication, EPA Director Dr Vincent Adams explained that these developments have hampered his agency’s capacity to effectively monitor oil companies.
While he acknowledged that unfettered 24-hour access to oil rigs is a goal the department aspires to, he noted that that capacity is now being built.

“We do not have the capabilities at this time in terms of the personnel and resources. We are now building. We worked with the World Bank to set up a Petroleum Unit of about 36 staff members with specialised skills, who will be dedicated to the oil and gas,” Adams said. He added, “Now, we have not started filling those positions as yet, because we haven’t gotten our budget. It’s in the budget that was submitted, except that we have to wait until we have parliament. We’re sitting etc for them to pass the budget. So, we don’t have that, we can’t go out and recruit people to train and get them onsite 24/7. But that is our goal. I can’t promise when it will happen.”
Apart from the fact that Guyana is without a result almost three months after elections, Adams also cited coronavirus (COVID-19) as another factor that has impacted the EPA’s work.
According to the EPA Director, a shift system has been implemented for the EPA workers.
“We’re working with limited staff. We’re rotating staff in and out of the agency. Unless it’s an emergency, we’re not doing any site visits. Like we had that spill at DDL, we had to get people out there. Unless it’s an emergency, we’re not sending people out there, especially if it’s out of reach,” he explained.

Responsibilities
Among other things, the EPA has to peruse and approve the environmental impact assessments from companies, including oil operators. It also has to make site visits to these operations, preferably unannounced and random visits. This is to ensure that companies are complying with regulations designed to safeguard the environment.
Last year, at the close of an EPA workshop that targeted community forest operators (CFOs), Dr. Adams had expressed the goal of having an EPA office in every region by 2020. That was until COVID-19 and Guyana’s unresolved election crisis hit.
It has been almost three months since elections were held, yet a winner cannot be declared. At present, a National Recount is underway at the Arthur Chung Convention Centre (ACCC). As at day 21 of the recount, a total of 1,290 ballot boxes had been processed. This is little more than half of the total number. With just a few more days left in the initially scheduled 25-day exercise, it means an extension will have to be granted in order to recount all 2,339 ballot boxes.
So far, only a few regions have been completely recounted and certified.
In light of the controversies leading up to the recount, a unified international community has already warned Guyana that it could be isolated and even sanctioned if a President is sworn in on the flawed results, resulting in an uneasy standoff between the international community and the Government.
All of this is compounded by the fact that the last time a budget was passed was in November 2018. The very next month, the Government fell to a No-Confidence Motion, something it spent much of last year trying to reverse.
In keeping with the Fiscal Management and Accountability Act, the Government has had to curtail its expenditure for 2020 to just 1/12 of the previous year’s spending. This is expected to continue until a new budget is passed.