Sepa concerned over 'summary' dismissal of four EAC employees

KOTA KINABALU: A state ministry’s move to dismiss four staff of the Environmental Action Centre (EAC) is raising concern among members of the Sabah Environmental Protection Agency (Sepa).

In a statement released on Friday, the agency questioned the state Tourism, Culture and Environmental Ministry’s decision to “summarily” dismiss the staff, who were hired for six months, without any formal notification.

The issue of their removal was discussed at Sepa’s recent Annual General Meeting (AGM) as the move was against the 1996 state cabinet decision to create a smart partnership between the government and NGOs in protecting the environment.

"Over the last year and a half, a restructuring exercise was jointly conducted with the ministry to realign EAC to the original concept of the cabinet decision made in 1996. 

"New staff were hired and the mandate of administration of EAC falls under the jurisdiction of Sepa.

"However, after the staff had been working for six months at the EAC Secretariat, the ministry summarily dismissed these staff with no communication to Sepa", it added.