Harokaqveh: DEC may become authority

THE government is looking at transforming the Department of Environment and Conservation into an authority to make it more effective, Thompson Harokaqveh says.
Harokaqveh, the Minister for Environment and Conservation, said this in Goroka, Eastern Highlands province, yesterday during the Highlands’ regional consultation meeting on the draft National Protected Area Policy for Papua New Guinea.
He said the DEC was one of the State departments that was lagging behind in most of its programmes.
Harokaqveh, who has held the portfolio for the past seven months, said the department had been struggling all along and “it was time it goes for a change”.
He said he would be putting the submission to the national executive council for approval and he should present that in Parliament on March 20.
Harokaqveh said once it was approved, the name of the department would change to Conservation Environment Promotion Authority (CEPA).
He said the purpose of transforming the department was to make it more independent and sustainable by generating its own external  income through environment taxes and levies from mining, logging and other project developments.
Harokaqveh said logging companies were supposed to pay K2 for every cubic metre of log harvested but the department had not collected that since 1985.