In recent years, a small number of third-party environmental protection service agencies have blindly pursued economic interests, engaged in fraud, helped polluting enterprises to "pass the customs", and seriously disrupted the order of the third-party environmental protection service market. In accordance with the requirements of the Ministry of Ecology and Environment, ecological and environmental departments at all levels continue to strengthen the supervision of third-party environmental protection service institutions, and work with relevant departments to strictly investigate and punish violations of laws and regulations in accordance with the law, and severely crack down on illegal and criminal elements.
[Brief facts of the case].
On August 31, 2021, when the Zhongshan Municipal Bureau of Ecology and Environment and the market supervision department carried out a "double random" spot check of environmental monitoring institutions, it was found that some of the monitoring reports issued by Guangdong Guohuan Testing Technology Co., Ltd. were problematic and suspected of fraud. At the same time, relevant institutions and experts were entrusted to verify and identify more than 300 monitoring reports issued by the company. After investigation, the 80 monitoring reports issued by the company had a variety of falsification or tampering with monitoring data without sampling and analysis, deliberately untrue records or selective records of original data, inconsistencies between paper original records and electronic storage records, and analysis of alternative samples, and the false reports involved 45 pollutant discharge units, and the amount involved amounted to 66490,000 yuan.
[Investigation and punishment].
The above-mentioned behavior of the company violated the third paragraph of Article 12 of the "Guangdong Provincial Environmental Protection Regulations", which stipulates that "environmental monitoring institutions shall engage in environmental monitoring activities in accordance with environmental monitoring specifications, accept the supervision of the competent department of ecology and environment, and shall not deceive, conceal, forge or tamper with environmental monitoring data". In accordance with the second paragraph of Article 80 of the "Guangdong Provincial Environmental Protection Regulations", the Zhongshan Municipal Bureau of Ecology and Environment and the Market Supervision Bureau transferred the illegal cases to the public security organs.
In September 2021, the Zhongshan Municipal Public Security Bureau filed a case against the company for "issuing false documents" and transferred it to the procuratorate for review and prosecution in December. In March 2022, the People's Procuratorate of the First District of Zhongshan City filed a public prosecution. In June, the No. 1 People's Court of Zhongshan City made a judgment that the company was guilty of providing false supporting documents and sentenced to a fine of 200,000 yuanGeneral Manager Luo Mouhui and five other personnel were sentenced to fixed-term imprisonment ranging from 1 year and 9 months to 1 year and 2 months, and were also fined.
[Implications].
Environmental monitoring data is the lifeline of environmental monitoring work, and is the basic basis for objectively evaluating environmental quality, reflecting the effectiveness of pollution control, and implementing environmental management and decision-making, and it is of great significance to effectively improve the quality of environmental monitoring data. In the course of routine supervision and law enforcement, after the ecological environment department discovers the clues of falsification in the monitoring report, it shall promptly fix the documentary and physical evidence, and may entrust industry experts and professional institutions to assist in verification for technically complex or highly specialized issues, so as to form an evidence chain and ensure the accuracy of the characterization. At the same time, it is necessary to strengthen the linkage and cooperation of departments, establish and improve a long-term mechanism, jointly increase the supervision of inspection and testing institutions, severely crack down on fraud, and create a fair and orderly market environment.
[Brief facts of the case].
In August 2022, the Shanghai Environmental Law Enforcement Corps and the Municipal Environmental Monitoring Center jointly carried out a special inspection of the socialized service institutions for ecological environmental monitoring, and found that there were problems with the five automatic monitoring and comparison reports of fixed pollution sources issued by Greensky (Shanghai) Environmental Protection Technology Development***, and the reference method measurements of non-methane total hydrocarbons were too similar to the measurements of automatic monitoring equipment. Law enforcement officers immediately launched an investigation, questioned the participants in the experiment, and fixed the documentary evidence. After investigation, in order to ensure that the automatic monitoring and comparison results met the requirements, the company deliberately changed the samples during the monitoring process, replaced the samples collected on site with reconstituted gas samples and completed the monitoring, and issued a false monitoring report.
[Investigation and punishment].
The above behavior of the company violated the fourth paragraph of Article 36 of the Regulations of Shanghai Municipality on Environmental Protection (2021 Edition), which stipulates that "environmental monitoring institutions shall carry out environmental monitoring in accordance with national and municipal environmental monitoring standards, ensure the authenticity and accuracy of monitoring data, and be responsible for monitoring data and monitoring conclusions". In accordance with Article 89 of the Regulations of Shanghai Municipality on Environmental Protection (2021 Edition), the Shanghai Municipal Bureau of Ecology and Environment imposed a "double penalty", ordered the company to suspend business for rectification and imposed a fine of 180,000 yuan, and imposed a fine of 1 on its main person in charge30,000 yuan.
[Implications].
Promoting the standardization of self-monitoring and automatic monitoring by pollutant discharging units is a powerful starting point for creating an active law-abiding environment, and it is also an effective measure to deepen the reform of "delegating power, delegating power, and providing services" and stimulating the vitality of the socialized monitoring service market. However, a small number of enterprises and social monitoring institutions are driven by profits, and "use their brains" and "exploit loopholes" in the process of self-monitoring and automatic monitoring, seriously disrupting market order and undermining public credibility. In the daily supervision and law enforcement, the ecological environment department can give full play to its internal advantages, complement each other's technical strength, and strictly investigate data fraud and abnormal operation of automatic monitoring facilities through random spot checks and special inspections, so as to provide accurate and reliable monitoring data support for environmental management.
* |Ministry of Ecology and Environment.
Edit |Small fish.
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