What are responsibilities of holders of certificates of eligibility to provide environmental monitoring services in Vietnam?

1. What are responsibilities of holders of certificates of eligibility to provide environmental monitoring services in Vietnam?

Article 95 of Decree 08/2022/ND-CP stipulates responsibilities of holders of certificates of eligibility to provide environmental monitoring services as follows:

1. Every holder of the certificate of eligibility to provide environmental monitoring services shall maintain its satisfaction of the capacity conditions set out in the issued certificate. When there is a change to the conditions mentioned in Article 91 of this Decree, the holder shall send a written notification to MONRE within 07 days from the occurrence of such change.

2. The holder of the certificate of eligibility to provide environmental monitoring services shall be prepare a physical or electronic dossier to store and supervise its environmental monitoring activities so as to serve the inspections.

The dossier on its environmental monitoring activities includes a chemical logbook; test reports; records of environmental monitoring equipment, laboratory sample transfer record or system, records of quality assurance and control in environmental monitoring and data management in accordance with MONRE’s regulations on environmental monitoring techniques, liquidation minutes and other methods of contracting with customers in accordance with regulations of civil law and other relevant documents.

3. Upon providing environmental monitoring services, if the provider signs service contracts with customers, such contracts shall bear the provider’s unique signs and the date of the contract shall be clearly stated. The signs shall contain ordinal numbers indicating the date on which the first contract is signed and the date on which the last contract is signed in chronological order in a calendar year.

4. Result shall be returned to a customer via a test report bearing the signature and seal of the competent authority. The test report shall be prepared using a unique form, containing the information specified in clause 5 of this Article.

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2. What does information on the environmental monitoring test report includes in Vietnam?

In Clause 5, Article 95 of Decree 08/2022/ND-CP, information on the environmental monitoring test report is as follows:

5. Information on the test report includes:

a) Name of the provider;

b) Name of the customer;

c) Number of the issued VIMCERTS;

d) Date of delivery of the test report;

dd) Sign of the report: The sign shall contain ordinal numbers indicating the date on which the first report is delivered and the date on which the last report is delivered in chronological order in a calendar year. The provider may add more sign codes to serve its classification and internal management but must adhere to the numbering principles;

e) Analysis results: parameters, methods used, measurement results, regulations, standards or technical specifications used for reference purpose (if any);

g) If the provider hires another provider to monitor the parameters that the former is not allowed to certify, it is required to specify name of the provider in charge and enclose the analysis report given by such provider;

h) A record or system should be in place to manage test reports delivered to customers, containing at least: signs of the reports (including their ordinal numbers); date of delivery of the reports and names of customers.

In addition, in Clause 6, Clause 7, Clause 8, Article 95 of Decree 08/2022/ND-CP also stipulates:

6. If a provider carries out environmental monitoring itself to serve its researches and carries out monitoring for internal supervision purpose without signing contracts and delivering test reports to a second party, it is not required to comply with the regulations laid down in clauses 2, 3 and 4 of this Article.

7. The provider shall store original monitoring documents and raw monitoring data on all environmental monitoring activities within the last 03 years, except for the case specified in clause 6 of this Article.

8. In case of hiring another provider to monitor the parameters that has yet to be certified, the holder of the certificate of eligibility to provide environmental monitoring services shall select a provider issued with the certificate of eligibility to provide environmental monitoring services for such parameters to continue to carry out monitoring. The sample transfer record must be included in the dossier of every provider.

3. What are regulations on technical requirements to be satisfied by organizations and individuals carrying out environmental monitoring to provide and disclose information about environmental quality to communities in Vietnam? 

In Article 96 of Decree 08/2022/ND-CP stipulating technical requirements to be satisfied by organizations and individuals carrying out environmental monitoring to provide and disclose information about environmental quality to communities as follows:

1. MONRE shall execute the national environmental quality monitoring program and disclose information to communities by adopting the disclosure methods enshrined in clause 6 Article 102 of this Decree.

2. Provincial People’s Committees shall execute environmental quality monitoring programs within their provinces and disclose information to communities by adopting the disclosure methods enshrined in clause 6 Article 102 of this Decree.

3. Organizations and individuals which carry out periodic and regular monitoring of environmental quality of environmental components and use environmental monitoring results to directly provide and disclose information about environmental quality to communities shall comply with the technical requirements laid down in clauses 2, 3 and 4 Article 91 of this Decree.

4. Organizations and individuals which carry out automatic and continuous monitoring of environmental quality of environmental components and use results of automatic monitoring of environmental quality so as to directly provide and disclose information about environmental quality to communities shall comply with the technical requirements for environmental quality monitoring, including:

a) Technical requirements for automatic and continuous monitoring equipment;

b) Technical requirements for locations of installation of monitoring stations;

c) Managing and operating personnel;

d) Inspection and calibration of automatic and continuous monitoring equipment according to regulations of law on measurement;

dd) Quality control procedures;

5. The organizations and individuals carrying out environmental monitoring specified in clauses 3 and 4 of this Article shall disclose to communities information about environmental quality together with information about monitoring locations, monitoring methods and accuracy of equipment or method reporting limit and take responsibility for their environmental quality information disclosed.

6. Every entity specified in clause 4 of this Article shall report to a regulatory body on its satisfaction of the technical requirements for environmental monitoring before disclosing information to communities by using the form promulgated by MONRE. MONRE shall receive reports of organizations and individuals carrying out automatic and continuous monitoring of environmental quality within at least provinces. The provincial specialized environmental protection authority shall receive reports of organizations and individuals carrying out automatic and continuous monitoring of environmental quality within one province.

7. MONRE shall organize the inspection of satisfaction of technical requirements for environmental quality monitoring by the entities specified in clause 4 of this Article upon carrying out automatic and continuous monitoring of environmental quality within at least two provinces. Provincial specialized environmental protection authorities shall organize the inspection of satisfaction of technical requirements for environmental quality monitoring by the entities specified in clause 4 of this Article upon carrying out automatic and continuous monitoring of environmental quality within one province.

8. MONRE shall elaborate on the technical requirements for environmental monitoring specified in clause 4 of this Article.

Best Regards!