The Commission of Audit (CA) has released a performance audit report, which is also the first environmental audit report in Macau, on the greening works carried out by the Macau Civic and Municipal Affairs Bureau (IACM, in Portuguese abbreviation). The report reveals the lacking of specific and adequate legislation and an institutional framework in urban planning led the greening spaces and installations planning to be partial, limited to isolated and uncoordinated zones or construction projects; it also made the IACM’s planning and execution of the daily works on greening less effective.
The report reveals IACM has no oriented global planning and devotes insufficient attention to the daily greening works, which denounces its weak managerial attitude in this area. IACM approved three sets of instructions aiming to offer, even provisorily, some protection to the trees. Since the instructions weren’t binding, their action on protecting the trees in general and the old trees in particular was not very effective. More. From 2007, after three years passed, IACM produced nothing concrete, which makes evident the low commitment to fulfill its responsibilities in greening works.
The audit found that IACM spent a total of 374 120 patacas, between 2004 and 2008 to set up a “trees management and maintenance system” for collecting the data of all trees in Macau in a database in order to help defining a model to manage them. However, up to April this year, only slightly more than 21 000 trees have their data input in the system, out of a total of 488 364. On the other hand, IACM started, in 2008, to study the viability of applying radio frequency identification to ease and accelerate the trees data collecting. Up to this day, after more than two years passed, the study is still going on.
On the other aspect, the audit found the frontline inspectors don’t have the necessary technical training; they can only solve problems that are visible to naked eyes, so they aren’t contributing to preventive works. Coupled with insufficient “trees managers”, diseases and pests were not detected timely, leading to a couple of incidents of falling trees in recent years. This all demonstrate that the tree inspection procedure has deficiencies and voids. In 2006, IACM bought a radio detector for twenty one thousand patacas. However, the detector could only detect the quantity of roots but could not ascertain whether they were healthy or sick. For this purpose, the data collected must be sent to England for analysis, and this implies paying for an additional service. And the situation was further aggravated by the fact the detector wouldn’t work with irregular trunks, which precisely is the type of the majority of the trees in Macau, specially the old trees, so that the detector has not been used as frequent as expected.
CA suggests that IACM should speed up the legislative process in regard of specific regulations on greening and also on trees protection; define clear classification criteria of old trees and set up with effective management measures; strive for the attainment of the objectives which presided over the setting up of the trees management and maintenance system; improve technical training of the trees inspectors and define deeper examinations to be carried out during trees inspections; and, before buying any instrument, carry out in-depth study and assessment whether it serves the purpose.
In its written reply, IACM says it has been elaborating and presenting every year an annual activities plan; IACM would enlarge the application scope of the trees management and maintenance system and strengthen the training of the respective staff; and, that a quality control system is being developed for its Green Spaces and Gardens Department.
According to the definition laid down by the Working Group on Environmental Auditing of the Asian Organisation of Supreme Audit Institutions, environmental audit aims to promote the implementation by governments of sustainable development strategies and, in this framework, the audit institutions shall supervise and assess the authenticity, legality and effectiveness of the policies on environment management as well as the economic activities carried out by the public departments.
The audit report on the greening works carried out by IACM has been submitted to the Chief of Executive, with copy further delivered to the Legislative Assembly, and can be downloaded from this website.
