“Where unethical behaviour was noted at MEPA, this ministry took the required action. To my knowledge, no allegation of wrong-doing by DCC board members was ever made to the Audit Office.
“Notwithstanding the above, I took action to reduce the number of architects sitting on boards by replacing architects whose term expired with non-architects.”
Environment Minister George Pullicino said this in response to questions sent by MaltaToday last week regarding the recent outburst by Judge Joe Galea Debono, who described MEPA as a “kangaroo court”, and strongly hinted that DCC architects “scratch each other’s backs” when it comes to approving one another’s permit applications.
Responding to this criticism, Pullicino explained that he had already altered the DCC boards’ composition to three architects out of seven board members, when until 1998 it was five or even six.
At the same time, the Environment Minister added he saw no reason to doubt the operation of the current DCC boards, but was willing to consider changes to the way the DCC operates if these result in increased confidence whilst ensuring sufficient technical know-how within the DCC boards for decisions to be taken.
“The ministry has often considered the situation relating to the composition of DCC boards,” Pullicino said, adding that representations had often been made to the ministry regarding possible conflict of interests that could arise because of members of the board who were practising architects.
George Pullicino added that he would like to emphasise three major issues: “First, there are some who actually equate conflict of interest with wrong-doing. Conflict of interest becomes wrong-doing if and when the person does not declare the conflict of interest or where the decision-taker allows factors other than the specific merits of the case to influence him or her. That is the wrong-doing. Conflict of interest per se is not wrong-doing. This must be said out of respect to numerous board members who over the years have adopted correct ethical behaviour.”
Significantly, Pullicino said the Kamra tal-Periti (KTP) had always maintained that it is important to have architects on the board, since “lay” people normally have some difficulty to understand plans submitted by applicants as well as the MEPA planning process.
He reminded MaltaToday that finding suitable persons to sit on the DCC is not an easy task. The first constraint is availability. Many, including practising architects, cannot afford to dedicate the necessary between 10 and 15 hours per week.
“As the responsible minister, I, together with the MEPA Board, seek persons who can be relied upon to take decisions impartially and who will adhere to the strictest ethical standards.”
Pullicino said that a DCC board, needed members with good technical knowledge of planning and of architectural design. A board which does not have any technically competent people is the one most likely to take wrong decisions. Members are more likely to be swayed and even misled by the biased arguments put forward by the applicant and his architect. Hence the need for some of the board members to be architects.
Pullicino confirmed with MaltaToday that when choosing architects for the DCC board, he tried to select architects who work in some other government agency.
He said architects who were employees in architectural firms, as opposed to being partners, may be suitable because they had less direct interest in generating work for the firm.
Another more radical approach suggested to him was to have one board consisting of seven architects employed on a full time contract for a period of three years. The full-time members would be bound not to do any private work.
Very few allegations of wrong-doing of a DCC board member in the decision making process have ever reached the ministry, he concluded.
Pullicino sent the above answers on Thursday 18 October, two days after informing this newspaper that he would not be replying to our questions as the case in question (in which Judge Galea Debono made the original allegations) was “sub judice”.