Handpicked by Environment Minister George Pullicino as MEPA’s first internal auditor in 2004 after having served as Deputy Chairman of the Planning Authority and Chairman of a DCC board, few expected Joe Falzon to zealously scrutinize the institution he knew so well. Five years later, Pullicino’s choice has been vindicated by Falzon’s refusal to give MEPA a break. James Debono on ‘MEPA’s Rottweiler’
From the very start of his appointment in 2004, Falzon defied the Authority’s culture of secrecy by insisting on his right to pass his reports on MEPA’s operations to those who had made the complaint º despite repeated objections by then MEPA Chairman, Andrew Calleja.
Calleja was concerned that many of these reports ended up in the press, contributing to the public loss of trust in the authority. Falzon’s frank language contrasted with the opaque planning jargon prevalent in this institution. In a report on an illegal rabbit farm built next to a Gozitan family whose members contracted an acute skin infection Falzon noted, in his inimitable style, that MEPA “may as well publish an advertisement in the press informing the public that anybody may do whatever he or she likes irrespective of the Development Planning Act”.
Andrew Calleja opposed sending reports to the public arguing that instead of a whole report, only a brief note prepared by MEPA should be sent to those presenting the complaint. In the face of the chairman’s opposition, Falzon sought the advice of the Ombudsman Joe Sammut, who was also of the opinion that reports should be made available to those making a compliant.
“I followed the Ombudsman’s advice. I disagreed with the chairman because I believe everyone should have access to information. By sending a full report to all those making a complaint, everyone can make his own conclusions. In this way those whose complaints are rejected can understand why their case was not justified,” Falzon told MaltaToday.
Andrew Calleja’s ire
Tensions between the Authority and its Auditor reached new heights in 2006, when Falzon and his assistant, former PN President Carmel Cacopardo, started an investigation on MEPA Chairman Andrew Calleja himself.
Writing in MEPA’s own annual report – in which a couple of pages are allocated to the auditor – Falzon revealed that MEPA chairman Andrew Calleja had met with the developers of the Ta’ Qali convention centre to discuss permits for the enormous tent to be set up at the national park.
Falzon questioned the practice of the chairman meeting with developers in the presence of MEPA’s executive officials, saying that it sent a mixed message to employees in such meetings, who could interpret anything said by Calleja as an order.
The authority justified the chairman’s meetings as a way of unblocking situations where proposals get jammed.
But Falzon claimed that in the case of Calleja’s meeting with the applicants for the Ta’ Qali tent, “MEPA was going to issue a permit for a six-storey high tent the size of a football pitch through a simple Development Notification Order, with the excuse that the tent was ancillary to existing use.”
The term ‘ancillary’ in fact applies to minor applications such as portable toilets. Following Falzon’s intervention MEPA issued a temporary permit which has to be renewed every two years.
Following the report, the Chairman told Falzon that he “could not work with Cacopardo.”
Top Secet: The Sant’ Antnin report
MEPA Auditor Joe Falzon had also penned a draft report on the approval of the Sant’ Antnin Plant, but was asked not to divulge its contents by Ombudsman Joseph Said Pullicino.
MEPA had asked the Ombudsman to intervene after Joe Falzon sent a draft report to the MEPA board asking them for their comments. Said Pullicino wrote to Joe Falzon advising him to stop his investigation as “it would not be correct” on the part of the audit office to announce its conclusions on issues that still had to be determined by the Planning Appeals Board.
The Malta Environment and Planning Authority even stopped its own auditor from taking the witness stand in a court case instituted by the M’Skala council and the Committee Against the Recycling Plant, against the Planning Authority’s decision to approve the Sant’ Antnin recycling plant.
MEPA chose to present a judicial protest against Falzon taking the witness stand on the very morning of his court appearance.
“I could hear the lawyers arguing loudly as I was waiting outside to take the witness stand. After waiting for some time I was told that MEPA was objecting to my testimony. I cannot understand why,” an incredulous Joe Falzon told MaltaToday when contacted.
In its judicial protest, MEPA argued that Falzon should be allowed to testify “directly or indirectly on investigations conduced by the Audit Office on this case.”
‘Chinese Torture’
Joe Falzon’s first term in office expired on February 2007. The MEPA board immediately re-confirmed him in his post, but it took Environment Minister George Pullicino two months to convene Parliament’s development committee to ratify this appointment.
It took another two weeks for the MEPA board to write to Falzon informing him of his re-appointment. But despite being formally re-appointed, Falzon had no staff with whom to start working.
Instead of having his office strengthened he found himself alone in his office deprived of his full-time investigator Carmel Cacopardo.
“I could not even enter my office and I had to call to my former secretary to open the door,” a flabbergasted MEPA auditor Joe Falzon told MaltaToday describing his first day in office, following his formal re-appointment.
For months Falzon remained all alone in his office without a secretary and an investigator. In fact Falzon was only re-appointed after the term of Cacopardo as investigator had expired in April: “I have no one to answer the phone, no one to file the public’s complaints and no one to assist me in my investigations.”
In the meantime MEPA had set up its own complaints office, led by a former Ministry official. But despite mounting pressure Falzon refused to appoint anyone but Carmel acopardo as his investigator.
“I want Carmel Cacopardo because he is incorruptible. I want someone of the same integrity, and not some minister’s canvasser whom I cannot trust,” he told MaltaToday.
Falzon threatened to resign from his post if his recommendation to have Carmel Cacopardo re-appointed as his investigator was not accepted by the MEPA board.
Falzon claimed that Andrew Calleja started objecting to Cacopardo when he queried him on his meetings with developers and objectors in the presence of MEPA’s executive officials. In August, in a letter sent to Minister George Pullicino, the board said that it “has become increasingly preoccupied with the public opinions that Perit Carmel Cacopardo has been expressing” and “it believes that this has rendered his position as Investigating Officer untenable”.
The letter claimed that Cacopardo’s position had become untenable after writing several letters to newspapers criticizing MEPA’s setup and by chairing a political meeting organized by Alternattiva Demokratika.
MEPA’s letter banning Cacopardo from MEPA proved to be a self-fulfilling policy as the investigator went on to join Alternattiva Demokratika – The Green Party.
Active in election time
A few weeks before the March election Carmel Cacopardo earned a rebuke from Falzon for publishing the contentious report on the Sant’Antnin recycling plant.
When asked why he had published the report despite the objection of MEPA internal audit officer Joe Falzon, Cacopardo said: “I have a lot of respect for Perit Falzon. Falzon made that declaration because he respects the authorities. I also respect the authorities, but there is a point when I make other considerations. If the authorities have failed to live up to their obligations, I have the moral right to proceed,” he said.
The report revealed that Minister George Pullicino was always present at meetings between Wasteserv and MEPA case officers about the Sant’Antnin project. It also reprimanded MEPA for not considering suitable alternative sites.
Just a few days before the election, he dropped another bombshell, describing as “completely irregular” a permit for a supermarket constructed in Safi by Charles Polidano. The report – requested by Alternattiva Demokratika – led to the en-masse resignation of an entire DCC board on the eve of the election.
Falzon’s stature had grown to the extent that Prime Minister Lawrence Gonzi had no choice but to ask Falzon to investigate the controversial permit for a disco on agricultural land in Mistra, belonging to Nationalist MP Jeffrey Pullicino Orlando, when this became an issue before the March 2008 election.
Following Falzon’s damning report, MEPA invoked Article 39 A to revoke the permit. This was the first of two permits revoked following a report by Falzon: The other was that granted to PN President Victor Scerri in Bahrija, also before an election.
Enter Austin Walker
The newly-elected Prime Minister was forced to seek the advice of the Office of the Attorney General to confirm the legality of the appointment Austin Walker as MEPA’s executive chairman, after MaltaToday revealed that MEPA auditor Joe Falzon was questioning the legality of Walker’s appointment.
Falzon had asked Walker to seek the advice of the AG regarding the legality of his “double role” as board chairman and an executive officer – a position which effectively makes him an employee of the Authority.
“The Development Planning Act makes it clear that any servant of a public agency cannot serve on the board. As a MEPA employee, the new MEPA chairman is a servants of a public agency,” Falzon told MaltaToday.
MEPA Auditor Joe Falzon also questioned the legality of the appointment of MEPA employee Roderick Galdes as the opposition’s representative on the MEPA board.
No rest for MEPA
Despite being depleted of resources – except for an investigative officer from the Office of the Ombudsman who helps Falzon once a week – the MEOA auditor continued exposing cases of abuse.
In MEPA’s latest annual report he denounces a newly-approved agricultural policy as the pretext to justify the development of a villa and a swimming pool belonging to the PN’s Safi mayor.
And a second permit issued to Charles Polidano for a Lidl supermarket, this time in Luqa, was also deemed “completely irregular”, having been despite the negative recommendations of the Civil Aviation Department.
Consistent to his stand that private meetings between MEPA officials and developers are illegal he expressed his disagreement with the court that meetings between planning officers and developers were “normal practice”.
“I do not know when the practice of one-on-one meetings started. I had been chairman of the DCC (Development Control Commission) board for six years and I never had any one-on-one meetings with developers and objectors. I believe it is illegal because planning law says DCC meetings have to be held in public,” Falzon said.
His comments earned him a public rebuke from the Prime Minister who described his comments as “shameful” for “contradicting the court’s decision.”
A week later the Auditor earned another public rebuke, this time from the MEPA board. MEPA lashed out at its own auditor over a report probing a development permit in Qala, saying he should never even have investigated or published the report because the matter was still before the appeals board. It said Falzon’s actions contradicted the decision of the Ombudsman, a higher institution.
In his latest report on the development of a residential complex on a ridge in Qala overlooking the picturesque Mgarr harbour, Falzon questioned the designation of a restaurant and an adjacent building belonging to Joe Xerri as an ODZ rural settlement-a category which exempts ODZ hamlets from prohibitions prevailing in other ODZ areas.
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