Singh gives evidence
ENVIRONMENT Department director Sandeep Singh says Freesoul Real Estate Development (Fiji) Pte Ltd breached 20 of the 55 conditions set out in the approved conditional environment impact assessment (EIA) report.
Giving evidence before Suva Magistrate Seini Paumau yesterday, Ms Singh said she had approved a conditional EIA for Wacia and Qalilawa on December 24, 2018 for Freesoul.
She said non-compliance of the 20 conditions led to the cancellation of the company’s EIA approval for any works on Malolo.
Ms Singh said the department had issued a prohibition notice to Fressoul on June 1, 2018.
She added she had received an email by the then Director of Lands who informed her that some illegal work had been taking place at Malolo and requested that officers from the Department of Environment accompany a team from the Department of Lands to inspect the site at Wacia.
She told the court that the environment officer who inspected the site said the situation at the site was bad and an inlet channel had been dug.
The officer sent pictures of the channel on Viber.
Ms Singh said based on the phone conversations and Viber messages she received, she issued Freesoul a prohibition notice to stop all works at the Wacia site.
She added the EIA screening application and the terms of reference (TOR) issued to Freesoul were only for the Wacia part of Malolo Island.
She said the screening application was only allowed for Wacia and never amended to include Qalilawa.
The department learnt about Qalilawa when amending the charges for Freesoul this year, she said.
Freesoul, she said, had different leases and they found that the Qalilawa lease was later transferred to Dickson International and the Wacia lease was registered under Freesoul.
She said when receiving the Wacia screening application, the department had thought it included the entire project development and that Wacia was inclusive of Qalilawa.
She further added when the department received Freesoul’s EIA report from the registered consultant, the report had included Qalilawa which was not part of the initial EIA screening application and TOR to Freesoul.
She told the court that in her opinion, the processing officers at the department had overlooked this.
She also claimed a review committee had been set up by the department to look through the report, however, this was also not picked up.
She said Freesoul did not amend the screening application to include Qalilawa.
She said when she had visited the site, the two pieces of land were side by side with no pegs and they could not make out which portion was Wacia or Qalilawa.
She also claimed that works at Qalilawa were unauthorised and the department relied on the consultants who were registered with the department.
She said Freesoul did not have any approval from the department to carry out any works at the site.
Ms Singh added the department relied on the Wacia lease, which had been attached to the screening application submitted by Freesoul, and one of the pieces of land to be screened which belonged to Natadola Tourism Enterprises.
She said looking back, the department’s processing officers should have looked at the different parcels of land attached to the EIA screening application and enquired with Freesoul about the inclusion of pieces of land which did not belong to them in their application.
She added she relied upon the advice and recommendations of the review committee and process officers on the EIA applications.
She claimed that no one in the department had highlighted this to her.
She said the prohibition notice was neither uplifted nor modified when the conditional EIA approval had been given.
She highlighted that she disagreed with the Ministry of Environment permanent secretary’s decision to allow Freesoul workers to remain at the site of the proposed development at Wacia and continue works at nearby Solevu Village.
However, she mentioned in court that the permanent secretary had made it very clear to the Director of Freesoul that no construction works were to be carried out at the site since the prohibition notice was still in effect and doing so would constitute an offence.
Freesoul is facing allegations of undertaking unauthorised developments and of failure to comply with a prohibition notice.
The trial continues today.