Enabling Environment for Social Accountability in ... - SASANet

In its efforts to monitor environmental compliance over the last few years, the ORM has approached the
Ministry of Nature and the Environment for information on Environmental Impact Assessment reports,
protection plans, and monitoring plans as they relate to the Ongi River watershed. 76 Under the
Environmental Protection Law, these documents must be publicly available. The ORM chair noted,
however, that “ministry officials prevaricated on these requests and in some cases gave implausible
excuses for not releasing the documents.” In a few incidents ORM leaders were prevented from seeing the
appropriate ministerial officials. The experience underscores the urgency of a freedom of information law
to guarantee access to information, require officials to respond, and thus render government more
transparent and accountable (Finding ORM 3).
On the other hand, the movement has had some positive responses to its demands for information. In
addition to its request in 2002 for an environmental study, ORM requested in 2003 that the Mineral
Resource and Petroleum Authority (MRPA) provide the names of companies operating in the Ongi Basin
and maps showing the location of their operations. They also requested information on the volume of
mining activities and the assessed environmental damage. The ORM confirmed that the MRPA provided
this information “in a timely manner.”
In May 2004, the ORM and the MRPA conducted a joint tour of gold mining sites. They were joined by
the governors of three affected soums and representatives of the mining companies. As a result, the
MRPA commissioned a comprehensive study into the causes of the depletion of the river and lake. The
MRPA sought a financial contribution from ORM for the study; but unfortunately the ORM did not have
the resources. Such financial participation would have increased ORM’s stake in the study and enhanced
the report’s objectivity and credibility. This illustrates that the capacity of CSOs to generate, as well as to
gain access to, information is contingent on sufficient financial resources (Findings ORM 1 and 4).
In comparison with the GoM, the movement has had less success obtaining information from mining
companies. For example, in 2004, Ongi leaders requested information on the volume of earth removed by
the mining company Erel in order to know the level of water diverted and monitor the company’s
rehabilitation activities of their sites in Uyanga. The company declined to release the information,
whereupon the team went to the local environment inspector, who said he did not have the information.
They then contacted the soum governor, who should have had this information but did not. The governor
directed them to the inspector at the aimag level, who said he had the report but that it was in the
possession of someone else. The inspector referred them to the Environment Ministry in Ulaanbaatar, to
whom the Ongi leaders submitted an official request letter but have yet to receive a response.
To monitor the GoM’s performance, ORM has also sought information under the government’s
international treaty obligations. The MoNE informed ORM that there are 11 such treaties and 4 protocols.
The ORM leadership complained that the environment ministry only gave a partial response that did not
cover all the conventions.
Based on its studies and those requested of the GOM, the leaders of the ORM have demonstrated that
mining companies are not being held accountable for damaging the river basin. The ORM and observers
from various INGOs, the media, and donor agencies maintain that the Environmental Impact Assessments
demonstrate a lack of compliance with the applicable laws, and that the GoM’s environmental monitoring
76 During a discussion of the preliminary synthesis of the study with the Secretary of State at the Ministry of Nature and the
Environment in February 2006, he indicated that under the Environmental Impact Assessment Law, adopted in 1998, there are 40
specialized agencies authorized to conduct EIAs, including Mongolian NGOs. The secretary noted that this is because “the
government cannot control or monitor its own activities.” He added that over the last two years MoNE has monitored 61 entities,
of which only 4 percent have carried out restoration activities on sites as required by law.