Cepa set to undergo major restructure, says Joku

THE Conservation Environment Protection Authority (Cepa) is set to undergo a major capacity restructure.
Cepa managing director Gunther Joku said with his reappointment for a second term, he was now focused on getting the office in order and realigning it with the Government’s agenda.
Joku said as far as environmental sustainability and protection was concerned, they would do so following the Government agenda.
“The Government has set up its agendas in two folds and they are the economic agenda and the social agenda,” Joku said.
He said to realign the organisation in response to the Government’s plan and programmes was to have a high performing human resource to achieve State’s objectives.
Joku said it had been almost four years since his organisation had moved away from a department (Environment and Conservation) to an authority so there were systems and management processes that needed to be put in place.
“We’ve come from a department situation so we’ve brought the legacies of the department into the authority,” Joku said.
“We have to change everyone’s mindset to work in an effective and efficient organisation. An organisation that requires less resources but delivers more. So that sort of thinking is what I want and with my management we’ll need to work. We started and donor agencies like UNDP, Global Environment Fund and Jica have been working with us on technical matters, progressing issues on policies and agendas.
“It is now time to take stock of where we are and embrace Government thinking and agenda.”
Joku said there are a lot of environment issues, particularly in the forest sector so Cepa needed raise its standard accordingly.