SETENA Board Members Go In Major Overhaul

May 2, 2008

http://www.thebeachtimes.com/article.php?id=2&at=2131

Environmental Watchdog Sheds Four Out Of Seven

There has been a major shake-up within senior ranks of SETENA, the government body responsible for giving environmental approval to the country’s construction and development.

Four out of seven directors at the Secretaría Técnica Nacional Ambiental (SETENA) have either been removed, or have quit the department.

The shake-up comes less than six months after the Minister of Competitiveness, Jorge Woodbridge, was charged with the task of revamping the environmental watchdog.

“There are radical changes underway,” Mr Woodbridge confirmed this week, of his brief to maximize government efficiency and improve the country’s competitiveness ratings abroad.

“What I came to do was a re-engineering of processes, and the implementation of systems to simplify proceedings.”

What remains unsaid is that SETENA has been heavily criticized by builders and developers, especially those in the tourism industry, for being slow and overly-bureaucratic.

The changes were swift and broad in scope.

First to go was SETENA’s Technical Secretary and representative of MINAE, Tatiana Cruz, who resigned as of March 31, citing personal reasons. Then, this month, three more directors were replaced.

“Some members of SETENA did not share these ideas and in standing aside, they gave the government and the hierarchs greater space to establish a policy and to implement it,” said Mr Woodbridge.

Sonia Espinoza, an engineer in charge of SETENA’s Auditing Department which monitors and tracks the progress of projects given an environmental viability and SETENA’s newly appointed Technical Secretary, is quick to defend the changes.

“We’re not making a change in structure but in mentality,” she said.

Changes range from improving working conditions for SETENA’s 75 employees (soon to be 97) to redefining and consolidating the role of SETENA as the ultimate government promoter of environmental sustainability.

To strengthen SETENA, and to ease Mr Woodbridge’s task, the government increased office’s operational budget five-fold to allow for the move into a new building, update computer equipment, purchase vehicles and increase SETENA’s workforce by more than 30 per cent — 22 new posts are to be filled immediately.

The additional funds also address modernizing the operation by the digitizing of the more than 20,000 case files, and the creation of guides and protocols for consultants who traditionally file the documentation required in a request for viability, including the forms D1 and D2.
Starting May 15, SETENA will begin to digitize cases already approved putting them online.

“Any consultation can be done online,” said Ms Espinoza.

“This will allow any developer in the world to see the status of his file, and will reduce considerably the number of people that our personnel will have to tend to in person.

“This will give the process more transparency and agility,” she added.

On a broader scope Mr Woodbridge wants SETENA to be more selective in the cases it reviews saying a common denominator as to the meaning of “strategic environmental evaluation” was lacking.

“SETENA was bogged down by the incessant processing of any and all projects,” he explained, “and a hotel of five or 1000 rooms would be handled in the same way.

“What has to be seen is the context in which development is occurring: if a project is near a forest, then SETENA should intervene and evaluate what is the viability of the project, which are the mitigation measures to be implemented, where is the equilibrium…” he added.

Mr Woodbridge is clear on where he wants to take SETENA with his “executive strategies” which have the seal of approval from President Arias’ cabinet.

“The strategic part is what is important,” he said. “You have to see the forest, not concentrate on each of the little trees.”

Mr Woodbridge said SETENA should limit itself to its role as environmental regent by dealing with the larger projects that could have adverse environmental effects over the State’s natural heritage.

He said SETENA does not serve its purpose by “seeing a chicken coup or a beauty salon.”

“The interests of the State,” according to Mr Woodbridge are best served by “protecting its aquifers and reefs; by limiting height and density of projects; by making development viable.”

Mr Woodbridge says SETENA should also concern itself with looking at projects for the greater good like sanitary landfills, or regulatory plans.

“We must have a team vision in protecting the more vulnerable areas. The education process is very important; it doesn’t help if the municipalities have open dumps.”
“I think SETENA is strategic and in future we must work closer with the municipalities, Ministry of Health, Environmental Administrative Tribunal and the different offices of MINAE,” Ms Espinoza concurred.

The shake-up wasn’t long in the making before the exiting SETENA directors voiced their opposition to the sweeping changes.

Former Secretary Cruz, Ileana Boschini, representative of the State-run energy giant ICE, Jorge Rojas of the Ministry of Transport (MOPT), and Rafael Corrales of the Ministry of Agriculture (MAG), signed a letter addressed to the Minister of the Environment, Roberto Dobles, in which they present their criticism of Mr Woodbridge’s tactics.

“We are concerned that new administrative–technical structures are being proposed without the backing of a participative internal process that counts with qualified outside criteria,” said the letter.

Rolando Mendoza, the representative of the National Council of Deans (of public universities), also a signatory, and the only one who remains in his post, told the newspaper Semanario Universidad, that the letter voiced concerns the government support being given SETENA translated into easing the way for foreign investment by taking away its mandate to make sure developers complied with existing legislation.

Nonetheless, Mr Mendoza agreed that each department was adapting new strategies to analyze projects in a serious and conscientious manner.

“We hope to do away with the bottleneck of files, and I estimate we will catch up by next year,” he said.

Ms Espinoza is adamant the restructuring is welcomed within SETENA.

“There has been great acceptance within the institution,” she says.

“I know the strengths and weaknesses of everyone in SETENA, so I have reorganized the departments to take advantage of each person’s experience.”

Mr Woodbridge, a former developer himself, and more recently, Vice Minister of Economy, says he has a small team to carry out his revamping, and is quick to point out he has another three months before he moves on to his next assignment.

“My experience with the public sector has been short and immensely frustrating,” he acknowledges.

“But I am very clear in what my goals are,” he says. “I am a man of industry.”