The Inter-American Development Bank (IDB) and the Andean Development Corporation (Corporación Andina de Fomento, CAF) have selected ICF International to perform an independent environmental and social audit of the Camisea Project in Peru.
The audit will start by the end of September and is presently scheduled to be completed in four months. Results of the audit will be disclosed to the public.
The concept of this environmental and social audit was established by the IDB and CAF in June 2003, prior to IDB approval of financing of the downstream component of the Camisea project with the project company Transportadora de Gas del Perú (TGP). The loan contract provides for conduct of an annual audit by TGP with independent consultants during project operation and for results being disclosed to the public. IDB and CAF decided to carry out this additional audit to complement this effort.
The objectives of the audit are to evaluate the environmental and social performance of the project, and if it is the case, identify any environmental and social impacts and risks that may not have been adequately mitigated. The audit will evaluate both the downstream and upstream components of the project.
The audit is in addition to various existing and ongoing independent environmental and social monitoring and supervision activities to assess performance and compliance by the project. These activities are being undertaken by external experts reporting to the IDB, the agencies of the Government of Peru, and the local community monitoring program.
The Draft Terms of Reference (TOR) for the audit were made available for public consultation from May 5 to May 24, 2006, and extensively consulted with stakeholders. A consultation meeting was held in Lima on May 19, 2006, and upon the stakeholders’ request, the IDB extended the consultation period until June 2, 2006.
Request for proposals were sent to fifteen environmental and social auditing companies and institutions (Arthur D. Little; Battelle; Bechtel; CH2M Hill; Currie & Brown; ENSR; Environ International Corporation; E3 Environmental Consulting; ICF Consulting; Integrated Environments; International Network for Environmental Compliance and Enforcement; Mott Mac Donald; Netherlands Commission for Environmental Impact Assessment; Tetra Tech NUS, Inc; and Marshal Macklin Monaghan). Five proposals were presented (Arthur D. Little, E3, ICF Consulting, Integrated Environments, and Mott Mac Donald).
The proposals were reviewed by a selection panel composed of IDB technical staff, CAF technical staff, and one external advisor. Proposals were evaluated based on technical criteria, including previous experience in similar audits of natural gas and liquids of natural gas pipeline projects, specific experience of the proposed team in similar audits, and in the Project’s specific ecosystems, language capabilities in English and Spanish, and understanding of the objectives and scope of the audit under ISO 14001.
This audit is part of an ongoing IDB commitment to independent evaluations of the environmental and social performance of the Camisea project.