A 2001 government decision has knocked off €3.3 million from a €4.5 million tariff that Albert Mizzi’s MIDI plc had to pay for construction waste dumped at sea between 2001 and 2006. After refusing to pay the tariff, MIDI will pay MEPA just €1.2 million of the full tariff, thanks to the government discount.
James Debono
In August 2008, MEPA invoiced MIDI plc the amount of €4.5 million for the disposal of waste at sea for the period between 2001 and 2006. A MEPA spokesperson said the amount was arrived at by calculating the number of tonnes the contractor had excavated, against a fee of €4.66 per tonne.
The sum itself was equivalent to the government’s entire financial allocation to the planning watchdog in 2008.
But MEPA has now said that in 2001, the government had agreed to charge MIDI the same rate which applied to waste deposited in landfills instead of the higher rate which applied to waste dumped at sea.
The official charges for disposing waste on land between 2001 and 2006 ranged between €0.90 per tonne in 2001 to €3.40 per tonne in 2006.
MEPA has now revealed that in 2001, MIDI plc had requested the government to exempt it from paying waste disposal fees. This request was eventually discussed at a meeting of the Manoel Island and Tigné Point Development Project Steering Committee, and on 14 March 2001, MIDI was informed by the committee that the dumping fee for construction waste at sea was to be equivalent to that on land.
“When MEPA verified this, the invoices were drawn up according to the rates applied by WasteServ for the disposal of waste in landfills,” the spokesperson told MaltaToday.
After MEPA reduced the €4.5 million bill to €1.2 million, MIDI agreed not to pursue with their claim that the payment was time-barred and acknowledged responsibility for the disposal of waste at sea. “MEPA and MIDI plc concluded negotiations and consented that the outstanding amount of €1.2 million will be settled,” the MEPA spokesperson said.
Previously MIDI claimed that any charges for the disposal of waste at sea should have been made to the individual contractors who had been engaged at the time to carry out the relevant excavation works.
News that MEPA was asking MIDI to pay €4.5 million emerged in the consortium’s prospectus published for its issue of €30 million in bonds for public subscription.
While MIDI argued in its prospectus that payments should have been invoiced to the subcontractors responsible for the disposal of the excavated waste, the company refused to reveal the names of the subcontractors who should have paid MEPA for the disposal of the construction waste.
MaltaToday had also asked MEPA to reveal when it had issued the first invoice to MIDI but no reply was forthcoming from MEPA. A spokesperson for MEPA said the issue was “commercially sensitive”. “Since the MIDI Consortium are currently disputing the amount, it is inappropriate to divulge any further information that may jeopardise the Authority’s position,” the spokesperson said back in January.
The prospectus published by MIDI revealed that on 23 October 2008, MEPA’s legal advisor requested the payment of €4,557,206.40 and threatened legal action in the event of failure to pay.
A reply rebutting the claim was sent by MIDI’s legal advisors on 4 November 2008.
1 million tonnes of waste The €4.5 million fee imposed on MIDI indicates that more than a million tonnes of construction waste was disposed by MIDI in an offshore “spoil ground” located north-east of Valletta harbour.
A total bill of €4.6 million indicates that between 990,696 and 1.2 million tonnes of construction waste were dumped into the sea in the past decade of construction at Tigné. This is roughly the equivalent of the annual amount of construction waste that was being deposited in Maghtab before 2003.
As a signatory of the London Convention, the Maltese government can only permit the dumping of inert waste under strict control and conditions.
MEPA has long recognised the risks involved in dumping of waste at sea. A position paper issued in 2001, which was never approved by the government, lambastes the disposal of waste at sea as an activity that on one hand squanders resources and on the other carries significant environmental risks.
According to the document, the disposal of waste at sea should only be considered in the absence of an alternative disposal option, and only for inert waste. Moreover, it recommends that disposal sites at sea must be designated after proper environmental assessment.
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