Compliance Monitoring & Enforcement of the Ministry was created in the year 2018 as a fallout of the re-organization of the organizational structure of the Ministry, as embarked upon by the then newly sworn-in Commissioner. The creation of the Unit was borne out of the fact that effective, efficient and sustainable environmental protection and management can only be achieved or guaranteed where there is a functional and effective monitoring and enforcement system in place. It is of note virtually all the activities of/in the Ministry (and by implication all Departments) will require one form of enforcement or the other to achieve mandates, thus the need for the emplacement of a central enforcement system, which shall be necessary to coordinate various enforcement activities or operations to be, or being embarked upon the Ministry.
Meanwhile, with the creation of the Unit in 2018, it automatically took over the supervision and coordination of the State Environmental Offences Enforcement Taskforce, a body put in place in line with the provision of the State Environmental Sanitation Enforcement Provisions of 1986. However, while the activities of the Taskforce remained dormant towards the end of the first term of this present administration, it was cheering that Mr. Governor, based on the convincing presentation of the Permanent Secretary on the need for the Taskforce recently (September 2021) approved its re-constitution.
Operations/Functions of the Unit
In line with the provisions of some subsisting Laws to guarantee safe, healthy, scenic, and productive Ondo State Environment, the mandate of the Unit include the following:
Monitoring of pollution sources and enforcement of applicable Laws on same;
Discouragement of illegal markets and trading;
Oversight of green infrastructures to prevent tampering or defacement;
Contribute to increasing revenue generation by ensuring that all environmental-related charges, levies and taxes are paid promptly;
Arresting and prosecuting violators of environmental laws; and
Enforcing all relevant environmental laws of the State, including laws on Sanitation.
The Unit, however, is presently reviewing necessary instruments, including the compilation of applicable sanctions/fines/penalties for environmental offences, and looking into the design of variously required enforcement instrument
