Donor: Ministry of Environment and Physical Planning of RSM
Implementation time: 05 / 2019-11 / 2019
Budget: 300,000 MKD / 4,878 EUR
Overall objective: To reduce air pollution in the City of Skopje.
Specific objective 1: Raising the capacities of the authorized environmental inspectors in the City of Skopje and the municipalities in the City of Skopje.
Specific Objective 2: Improved coordination between the authorized environmental inspectors in the City of Skopje and the municipalities in the City of Skopje.
Specific Objective 3: Enabling public access to air emission information by industrial pollutants.
Specific objective 4: Involvement of citizens in the inspection of sources of air pollution from industry.
Breaf description: Activities to reduce air pollution, by building the capacity and coordination of environmental inspectors in the City of Skopje and its municipalities, as well as by involving citizens in the inspection of sources of pollution from industry. Councilors, environmental inspectors from the municipalities and the City of Skopje, civil activists, representatives of polluters, media participated. It was implemented in the City of Skopje, with 4 pilot municipalities - Karpos, Centar, Aerodrom and Gazi Baba. It started with a survey of municipal environmental inspectors and polluters, followed by an analysis and its presentation at public debates in the municipalities. All municipal environmental inspectors on the territory of Skopje were trained, together with the city inspectors, who shared their positive experience. This was the first institutional coordination for conducting inspections of polluters. A manual for inspectors was prepared, and transparency and direct communication with citizens to report pollution were encouraged.
Activities:
1. Conduct a survey with a pre-defined questionnaire for municipal services and industrial polluters.
2. Preparation of an analysis based on the processing of the survey results.
3. Conducting pilot training for the authorized environmental inspectors in the City of Skopje and the municipalities in the City of Skopje (Karpos, Centar, Aerodrom and Gazi Baba), with previously prepared training material.
4. Preparation of Framework mandate and Rules of Procedure of the "Inspection Panel".
6. Holding an “Inspection Panel” (2 meetings with authorized environmental inspectors at the level of Skopje).
7. Defining the format and the manner of publishing the results of the performed inspection and the annual reports for monitoring the air emissions of the “B” installations.
8. Publication and popularization of reports.
9. Establishment of a "hot line" and other channels for reporting air pollution from industry by citizens.
Results:
1. Prepared Analysis on the effectiveness of the inspections on the polluters, according to the data from the municipal inspectors and the legal entities that pollute in the municipalities of Karpos, Aerodrom, Centar and Gazi Baba.
Conclusions and insights:
- Inspectors and the pollution industry are satisfied with their work and mutual cooperation (!)
- Inspectors acknowledge that they do not have sufficient training to conduct surveillance or communicate with citizens.
- Rarely or almost never will the respondents from the municipal installations (polluters) be subject to extraordinary inspection (!)
- It is necessary to strengthen the capacities of inspectors to perform supervision in two directions: trainings for performing supervision of specific technologies and appropriate equipment for performing that supervision.
- More staff and appropriate equipment is needed to process fines.
- It is necessary to increase the number of inspectors in accordance with the number of installations in each municipality.
2. Training on inspection supervised with topics: inspection procedure, inspection, legislation, practice and coordination with the City Inspection (attended by 17 environmental inspectors, including the head of the city inspectorate in Skopje, Miroslav Bogdanovski).
Conclusions and insights:
- This was the first institutional coordination between municipal and city environmental inspectors to co-operate in conducting pollution inspections.
- It is necessary to raise awareness and inform the citizens about the possibilities for effective cooperation with the inspection services.
- It is necessary to strengthen the capacities of the institutions to improve the inspection supervision.
- The legal framework needs to be improved in order to improve inspections.
- The Rulebook on limit values, which was amended at the initiative of the Inspectorate of the City of Skopje, and in the meantime entered into force, should enable more efficient performance of the work of inspectors, who have been denied this tool so far and prevented punishment of those violated the laws.
- It is necessary to define the competencies of the various management bodies.
- Recommendations to the municipalities for improving the situation with the environment in the municipalities of the city of Skopje.
3. Organized and held 4 municipal public debates (Karpos, Aerodrom, Centar and Gazi Baba) with the presence of citizens, civil activists and many media. The invited mayors were not present.
Conclusions and insights:
- It is necessary to raise awareness and inform the citizens about the possibilities for effective cooperation with the inspection services
- Inspections should provide communication with citizens (active telephones) and a "red line", unified for all inspectors in Skopje.
- It is necessary to build trust between citizens and inspectors who with joint efforts will show intolerance towards polluters (some will report, and others will act and punish accordingly).
- Citizens should be informed that the report to the inspectorates is anonymous (inspectors should keep the information from whom the report is secret). Violation of this right may require liability of inspectors. At the same time, the inspectorate is obliged to respond to the citizen's complaint within 15 days.
- According to the Law on Public Cleanliness, the police have the right and duty to respond to reports from citizens in violation of the law.
- Inspectorates should be transparent in doing their job.
- The state must provide an accredited analysis laboratory.
- More extraordinary inspections are needed, according to operational plans and issued reports, but by measuring, and not only by reviewing issued documents.
- In addition to inspectors, education of judges is needed, in order to more effectively resolve cases submitted by inspectors.
- It is necessary to make a Register of pollutants (what fuels they use).
- A Rulebook on permitted solid fuels is required.
- Coordination with the Market Inspectorate and Customs is needed to check the quality of fuel imports, as well as appropriate equipment for Customs.
- A better legal framework is needed to improve inspections.
- It is necessary to define the competencies of the various administrative bodies for better coordination of the inspectorates at vertical and horizontal level.
- In order to prevent, the standards and procedures for obtaining a permit to operate the installations at the Environment Directorate should be improved.
• The state must establish a better control system for indications of corrupt practices in the field of environment.