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The audit examined whether the
Environment Protection Authority's (EPA) control and
regulation of hazardous waste has reduced inappropriate disposal.
In particular, it examined business information systems, monitoring
and enforcement actions, as well as whether the expected benefits
from the new regulations were being achieved.
The audit found that EPA is not
effectively regulating commerce and industry’s management of
hazardous wastes. Its monitoring and inspection activities lack
coherence, purpose and coordination. This, combined with poor
business information because of EPA’s lack of data reliability,
poor analysis and reporting and inadequate documentation of its
rationale for decisions, means that there is neither sound
compliance monitoring nor effective enforcement regimes.
As a consequence, there is little
assurance that hazardous waste is stored and disposed of
appropriately.
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