James Debono Alfred Sant’s barb at the government’s ‘power of incumbency’ reverberates yet again, as parliamentary statistics show the number of planning permits issued by MEPA for Gozitan developments sharply peaked in pre-election years 2002 and 2007.
The statistics show how the number of permits rose from a sheer 447 in 2001 to 754 in 2002 – an increase of 68% – only to drop again to 590 in 2004.
Subsequently the number of permits increased from 728 in 2006 to 973 in 2007: an increase of 33%. Significantly the number of permits dropped drastically to 643 in 2008 and again to 570 in 2009. In what could be an indication of apprehension among developers on MEPA reform, 2009 saw the least number of approved permits since 2001.
Another set of statistics also shows that ODZ permits in both Malta and Gozo also peaked in 2007 when 730 such permits were issued, up from 612 in the previous year. These included a record number of approved ODZ dwelling whose number increased from 76 in 2006 to 110 in 2007.
A MaltaToday probe had already shown how a record number of permits were issued by MEPA in the last week before the election in what could be an indication of the use of the government’s power of incumbency.
The probe showed that MEPA’s development control commission boards (DCC) considered an amazing total of 430 cases in the last week of the election of 8 March – nearly three times the number of cases considered over the same period a year before.
The number of cases considered by the DCC boards shot up from 162 in the first week of March 2008, to a staggering 430 in the week before the election. These included 49 cases in which the DCC boards ignored the case officers’ negative recommendations, and issued a permit all the same. Only 15 cases were refused outright, while another 112 cases which had a negative recommendation by the case officer were deferred to a later date.
Only recently, former Labour leader Alfred Sant criticised the MEPA reform bill for not offering any guarantee against a government’s abuse of its influence over executive bodies and decision-makers.
Sant said the planning authority had served as “a smokescreen for decisions taken as a result of political pressure and patronage” and that politicians could implement their decisions without being held responsible for them by appointing ‘yes-men’ on the different boards. Sant said this was evident in the use of MEPA boards for the government to gain votes before the election.
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