Permanent Secretary for Environment Joshua Wycliffe says.

More than one hundred project owners or investors who needed Environmental Impact Assessments were duped by consultants in the last year.

Permanent Secretary for Environment Joshua Wycliffe says the consultants were hired to carry out paper work and submit applications on the investor’s behalf.

However, the Ministry has found that at least sixty percent of these consultants have tricked their clients causing losses of up to $100, 000.

“It has come to our notice recently that are good number of Consultants who don’t tell the truth to the business or project owners. They keep telling them that this requirements is not there or they say it’s with the Department and they are sleeping over it, not doing its job”.

He adds most of these Consultants are still not adhering to the requirements and are submitting half-bait information which hinders the facilitation of EIA applications.

“9.9 out 10 that reaches our Customer Service staff and then on to our back-office come incomplete. 9 out of 10 we have to return it or we have to ask them for more information then there’s a lot of time lost going back and forth”.

The issue has prompted the Ministry to categorize these consultants in accordance to their area of expertise.

Wycliffe stated they received close 300 EIA applications in the last 8 month.