2023-08-12 07:30:00
Civil society organizations are stepping up and denouncing a critical situation concerning the National Office for the Environment (ONE). In a press release, they ask for the appointment as soon as possible of a new director general of the ONE.
Since the dismissal of its director general on 17 May, the current Secretary General of the Ministry of the Environment and Sustainable Development, who is also the Chairman of the Board of Directors (PCA) of ONE, has assumed the Acting Director General (DG ai). “Such a situation is a perfect illustration of the poor governance that is rampant in the environmental sector,” says civil society.
In the absence of the appointment of a new general manager, of which the only signatory approved by the MECIE decree (making investments compatible with the environment), the environmental assessment processes for many private and public projects remain obsolete.
Civil society is thus demanding the separation of the executive power of the ONE and the power of control of the Ministry of the Environment and Sustainable Development (MEDD) in this institution.
“The mission of ONE being the prevention of environmental risks in public and private investments and the fight against pollution. To this end, it must ensure that economic activities are not carried out to the detriment of the environment by applying the Compatibility of Investments with the Environment (MECIE). In this pre-election period, when the risks of looting and trafficking in natural resources are high, and the application of the law is sometimes lacking, the ONE must insist on exercising its role without fail”, declare the signatories of the communicated.
Many complex and large-scale infrastructure projects such as new cities, the construction of a highway, the urban mobility network (urban train and cable car) require the intervention of ONE, recalls civil society.
In view of these challenges, it seems that the ONE is strongly handicapped by a rather baroque management which prevents this body from functioning as it should, specifies the press release.
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