THE embattled National Environment and Planning Agency (NEPA) has come out in defence of its 10-year record, insisting its mandate is to “promote sustainable development, not ensure it”.

“Sustainable development depends on the economic and social dynamic of the country and Government’s policy direction,” the agency said in a 73-page report, written in response to the scathing review of its performance by the Auditor General (AG) last December.

“NEPA does its part through development control, which is not entirely our remit, as local authorities and other regulatory agencies have a significant role,” the agency added in its own report, made public on Tuesday as its chief executive officer (CEO) Peter Knight went before the Public Accounts Committee of Parliament.

The AG found last year that not only does the environmental regulatory agency not have a proactive strategy to protect the environment, but also that there had been limited progress in its forward planning function since 2001 — given outdated development orders and its failure to finalise new ones.

The AG report said, too, that:

* NEPA is inward-looking, failing to benchmark its practices with other similar environmental organisations to enhance its own operations; and

* there are severe weaknesses in its co-ordination of its monitoring and enforcement activities, with no formal procedures to indicate how the Enforcement Branch is advised of newly approved permits and licenses.

Critically, the report said NEPA has not implemented appropriate mechanisms to manage its operations to realise its mission “to promote sustainable development by ensuring the protection and orderly development in Jamaica”.

It also accused NEPA of monitoring less than half of approved developments while not placing sufficient priority on the legal and enforcement arm of the business. This, while also failing to address 42 per cent of the environmental concerns reported by the public between April 2007 and March of 2010.

In its own report, written in response to the AG, NEPA took issue with each of the findings. For one thing, it said it does have a proactive strategy towards the protection of the environment with support through project funding from international development partners — strategies adopted elsewhere. NEPA pointed to the Watershed Management Model funded by the United Nations Environment Programme/ Global Environment Facility/Integrated Watershed Management and Coastal Area Management adopted in St Lucia as one example.

“The agency agrees that the process of promulgating development orders has taken an inordinate length of time. The delay, however, cannot be placed solely at the agency’s feet since funding support is required to operationalise the process and produce the plans and orders,” NEPA said, adding that the Town and Country Planning Authority (TCPA) is the entity with final responsibility for development orders it drafts.

“Contrary to the opinion of the AG, NEPA has strong outward-looking, working links, partnerships and attachments to a number of regional and international organisations,” the agency added.

It cited a number of conventions to which Jamaica is a party, and partnerships with the United Nations Environment Programme and the United Nations Development Programme as examples of this.

Beyond that, NEPA said it operates a system designed to co-ordinate and monitor activities.

“In addition to the placement of approvals into AMANDA within three days of the meeting of the NRCA and the TCPA, an e-mail is sent out by the Board Secretariat of the agency containing the application number, the name of the applicant, the location of the development, the type of development proposed and the decision of the authority in relation to the application,” it said.

As to its failure to input mechanisms to see that the agency achieves its mission, NEPA said, “orderly development has been a difficult and challenging proposition not only to NEPA, but the entire country”, while blaming most of the disorder on “socio-political, socio-cultural and economic imperatives”.

At the same time, NEPA criticised the AG’s audit for failing to have dialogue “with technical officers in the portfolio ministry, discussions with the NRCA/TCPA and the international donor agencies” which it said would have strengthened the report.

Still, the agency said it would accept the AG’s report and will “redouble its efforts towards programmes, plans and activities development and implementation in the upcoming calendar year”.

To that end, the agency said it would now seek a financing envelope in the 2011/2012 budget to complete an impact assessment on its work and contribution to the country, obtain international standards organisation certification in 9000 and 14000 categories, and find creative ways to recruit new skill sets.

In addition, NEPA promised to:

* develop a research agenda, pursue memoranda of understanding with important partners and open communication avenues to better educate and inform the public;

* lobby the TCPA and the chief parliamentary counsel in promulgating the seven completed development orders for Portland, Trelawny, Manchester, St Catherine, St James, Kingston and St Andrew, and the Negril Area; and

* develop more efficient measures in assigning and managing the operations of its Enforcement Branch and become more aggressive in managing environmental breaches.

It also committed to implementing changes to the internal procedures and notify the public when enforcement actions have been taken.

Diana McCaulay, CEO for the Jamaica Environment Trust and a staunch critic of NEPA, was unimpressed.

“What struck me is it is easy to see why things don’t change at the National Environment and Planning Agency because they basically think they are doing a fine job. That is what struck me. It was a justification of an agency that is patently failing to protect the Jamaican environment,” she told the Observer.