No headquarter, no factory, no practice license, but the Ha Lan Environment Service and Waste Treatment Company still could sign a lot of contracts with enterprises on waste treatment.
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In late 2010, the HCM City Department of Natural Resources and the Environment released a decision on revoking the practice license on treating and disposing hazardous wastes from the Ha Lan Environment Service and Waste Treatment Company, while requesting the company to give the license to back to the department.
After that, Ha Lan many times asked for the permission from the department to use in the trial basis the incinerator CTNH RI- 203-150. In January 2011, the city’s department released a document, agreeing the company to test the incinerator. However, in April 2011, after considering the results of the two tests, the department released a document, instructing Ha Lan Company to stop the trial burning.
Still operating despite revoked license
With no practice license and the unlicensed incinerator, Ha Lan still has been offering services and has signed a lot of contracts on hazardous waste treatment.
In March 2011, for example, Ha Lan signed a contract on treating the consignments of expired drugs owned by Trung Nam Pharmacy Company in Binh Thanh district in HCM City. The treatment cost was fixed at 10 million per consignment of less than 500 kilos.
The contract clearly stipulated that Ha Lan Company has to collect and carry the consignments to the places accepted by the HCM City Department for Natural Resources and the Environment, for treatment in accordance with the solution approved by the department.
However, the “solution approved by the department” was only submitted to the department one month later by the Trung Nam Company.
In May 2011, Deputy Director of the HCM City Department for Natural Resources and the Environment Nguyen Van Phuoc replied that the department accepted the suggested solution to combust the drugs, while combustion ashes must be solidified and stored safely, and the treatment process must have the witness of representatives from the department for natural resources and the environment, and the city’s healthcare department.
Following the instructions by the watchdog agency, on May 19, 2011, Trung Nam Company sent a document, inviting representatives from the HCM City Department for Natural Resources and the Environment, to supervise the combustion, and witness the hand-over of the expired drugs from the Trung Nam’s store to Ha Lan’s store.
The enterprise with “three no’s”
Prior to that, Ha Lan once got the license from the watchdog agency to carry and treat hazardous waste. However, a lot of problems have been found in the licensing procedures, since many formalities were skipped.
While the Ministry of Natural Resources and the Environment still had not expressed its official assessments about the environment impact report by Ha Lan Company, the HCM City Department of Natural Resources and the Environment on August 18, 2010, hurriedly granted practice license to treat and ruin hazardous waste to Ha Lan already.
Explaining the decision, the department said that this was necessary for the treatment of hazardous wastes in the city. It also could help apply new models in waste treatment. The list of Ha Lan’s equipments allowed to be operational includes RI – 203 incinerator.
In fact, Ha Lan only has one “moving waste treatment station” as called by the HCM City Department for Natural Resources and the Environment. Ha Lan does not have stable ground for waste treatment, but it still has got the “favor” to treat a lot of kinds of hazardous wastes, except the compounds with chlorine.
Major General Nguyen Xuan Ly, Head of the Police Agency for Fighting Environment Crimes, said he could not understand why such a company which does not have treatment grounds still got a license.