Capacity building: Environment watchdog to restore eight labs

Dept secretary says compliance with procurement rules will be ensured.

LAHORE:

The Environment Protection Agency (EPA) is set to purchase equipment worth Rs44 million for its eight laboratories in the province, The Express Tribune has learnt.

An EPA official told The Express Tribune that the agency would soon seek expressions of interest for the procurement of inductively coupled plasma spectrophotometers (ICP-S), ambient air quality monitoring and stack gas monitoring equipment and other lab utensils.

He said the equipment would enable the EPA to check water samples for presence of up to 70 metals including arsenic.

He said the replacement of machinery at the agency’s three air quality monitoring facilities with latest equipment would help cut down on maintenance expenditure.   These facilities are capable of measuring concentrations of carbon monoxide (CO), carbon dioxide (CO2), nitrogen oxide (NO), sulfur oxide (SO), ozone (O3), and meteorological parameters in the air. The annual maintenance cost of the technology currently under use in these facilities was about Rs7.5 million, he added.

The official said the agency would also get equipment to monitor gas stacks at industrial units for pollutants.

These laboratories have been established in Lahore, Multan, Rahim Yar Khan, Sheikhupura, Faisalabad, Rawalpindi, Gujranwala and Sialkot districts.

The laboratories had been lying unused since the termination of 11 EPA officials including the director general of the agency over corruption charges.

An inquiry by the Anti-Corruption Establishment had found the officials involved in procurement of poor quality equipment for these laboratories.

They were terminated from their jobs and taken into custody by the ACE over charges of embezzlement of funds worth Rs70 million and misuse of authority.

The officials were later released on bail.

The EPA official said it was unlikely that the procurement process would be transparent this time. “Some officials were already devising a plan to get around the Punjab Procurement Regulatory Authority to ensure their kickbacks in procurement,” he said.

Environment Protection Department Secretary Iqbal Muhammad Chuhan dismissed the allegations. He said he would ensure that procurement was done in accordance with the PPRA rules.

“Anyone found violating the rules would face strict penalties,” he added.

Published in The Express Tribune, March 1^st, 2015.