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National Environmental Management Act, 1998 (Act No. 107 of 1998)

Regulations in Terms of Chapter 5 of the National Environmental Management Act, 1998

Chapter 8 : General Matters affecting Applications and Appeals

Part 3 : Other matters

79. Compliance monitoring

 

1) If a competent authority reasonably suspects that the person who holds an environmental authorisation or who has been granted an exemption in terms of Chapter 5 of these Regulations has contravened or failed to comply with a condition of the authorisation or exemption, the competent authority may request that person, in writing, to submit an explanation for the alleged contravention or non-compliance.

 

2) If the competent authority reasonably suspects that the alleged contravention or failure has caused, or may cause, harm to the environment, the competent authority may request the person concerned, in writing, to submit an environmental audit report on the harm or suspected harm to the environment or on any specific matter determined by the competent authority.

 

3) An explanation and environmental audit report requested in terms of subregulation (1) must be submitted in a form and within a period determined by the competent authority.

 

4) The competent authority may require a person contemplated in subregulation (1) to appoint an independent person approved by the competent authority to perform the environmental audit.

 

5) A person contemplated in subregulation (1) is liable for all costs in connection with the environmental audit, including the preparation and submission of the audit report.

 

6) If a person contemplated in subregulation (2) is requested to submit an environmental audit report and fails to submit the report within the period determined in terms of subregulation (3), the competent authority may—
a) appoint an independent person to perform the audit; and
b) recover the cost of the audit from that person.