Despite failing to sustain multiple projects, the Punjab Environmental Protection Agency is all set to launch another project at the cost of Rs 386 million, Pakistan Today has reliably learnt on Sunday.
Sources told this correspondent that the new project, for which the funds have already been released, overlapped the scope and objectives of previous projects and Annual Development Program (ADP) schemes.
The environmental lab in Lahore was upgraded and enabled to test 104 environmental parameters in 2007 after the Japan International Cooperation Agency (JICA) in 2007 donated Rs 280 million. “JICA experts trained the EPA staff to run the lab and handed it over to the EPA in 2011 in a fully-functioning condition,” the sources said, adding that the EPA later received Rs 82 million under an ADP scheme (from 2011-16) to sustain the lab, but the department was unable to do so.
The EPA also received another Rs 28 million for the upgradation of the Multan lab’s monitoring and testing capacities. This project also failed to fulfil its purpose due to the procurement of substandard equipment.
A senior EPA official seeking anonymity told Pakistan Today that the evaluation and monitoring reports of the mentioned ADP schemes had not been submitted to the planning and development department because the schemes were unable to achieve the desired results.
“Former EPA DG Dr Javed Iqbal and Monitoring Lab and Implementation Director (ML&I) Tauqir Qureshi were the ones responsible for the oversight,” he alleged. “The National Accountability Bureau (NAB) is currently conducting an inquiry regarding the EPA’s purchase of the sub-standard equipment.”
The official claimed that there was no need for new projects and that the agency already had the required equipment and manpower to operate its laboratories. Allegedly, the new scheme will be shut down soon enough. “Eight state of the art laboratories have already been shut down,” the source said.
EPA Secretary Saif Anjum, who is currently the acting DG, was unavailable for comment when contacted.
However, EPA spokesperson Naseem ur Rehman Shah confirmed that the EPA had adequate laboratories and a well qualified staff, and added that the new project might be helpful in enhancing the capacities of the EPA.
