The disappointment of the auditor at the results of the Mepa inquiry (MaltaToday, 16 December) into the Luqa Lidl permit is understandable. The taste we are left with is one of “permit laundering” rather than any real investigation.
At the NGO forum on The State of the Environment, Mepa chairman Austin Walker stated that Mepa was happy to have a person like Perit Joseph Falzon as auditor, but that that did not mean it had to agree with him on everything. Taken at face value, that sounds like a reasonable expectation; only it does not square with the facts of the situation. The auditor’s radius and rapidity of action were seriously impaired when the contract of his assistant Carmel Cacopardo was not renewed and no substitute was appointed. That did not indicate any great “happiness” with the auditor’s work.
But a much more fundamental problem arises when it comes to “not agreeing with everything”. The truth is that there is a wide divergence on the principles of action between the auditor and Mepa, a divergence that cannot really be contained within the bounds of one organization. The Lidl permit inquiry, made public the day before the forum, provides a good illustration of this: what the auditor deems “a gross irregularity”, possibly requiring a police investigation because of acts of discrimination and other funny business, the board of inquiry described as a rather loose interpretation of the rules, requiring no more than a warning to the officials involved that they must not make similar mistakes in future.
The auditor’s charitable claim that the Mepa board was “misled” by the Directorate, was ignored by the board of inquiry, an act that amounts to adding insult to injury. At the very least, a Mepa board unaware of what the Directorate was doing would be in clear dereliction of duty; but the chances that the Mepa board was actually misled are rather small, much smaller than those of active connivance.
The auditor’s report on the developments of the site at Ta’ Baldu, limits of Rabat, sheds further light on Board-Directorate interaction at Mepa. The technique used there was to develop, alter, demolish, build, enclose etc. and then apply for Mepa sanction. In the face of a barrage of refusals from case officers and heritage committees, plus objections from NGOs, the Directorate, helped by advice from Directors of Agriculture who seem unable to distinguish a ploughed field from a swimming pool or a supermarket forecourt, met all requests for sanctioning and is still considering a few more. In the middle of this melee, Mepa, no doubt again unaware of what the Planning Directorate was doing, issued its famous One World item of 16 June 2009, regaling us with its heroic efforts to preserve our heritage at Ta’ Baldu.
Again by chance, the photograph with the piece showed exactly nothing of what was going on at the site. The (abbreviated) Mepa comments on the case included in the auditor’s report make one weep.
One relevant point that re-emerged at the NGO seminar, as a result of a reminder from Professor Victor Axiak of a past remark by Mgr. Joseph Mercieca that money changed hands at Mepa, related to the local definition of corruption. It seems that unless money is involved, then no corruption is deemed to have taken place. But surely that is too narrow.
A long series of decisions of the type taken in the Ta’ Baldu case, flying in the face of expert advice and Mepa rules, must constitute corruption. The misdemeanors of the architect, which prompted the auditor to suggest disciplinary proceedings in the Kamra tal-Periti, are of the same stripe, as is the admission by the two DCC board officials that their final decision on Mistra was influenced by the (unexplained) presence of Jeffrey Pullicino Orlando at the meetings.
In fact the auditor has asked Mepa to persuade the Prime Minister to set up a Board of Inquiry into the workings of DCC board, saying that the members cannot shrug off their responsibilities by resigning, as they have done. What about it, Dr Gonzi?
Any comments?
If you wish your comments to be published in our Letters pages please click button below. Please write a contact number and a postal address where you may be contacted.
