Labour MP Joe Mizzi said in parliament yesterday that there were corruption, abuse and conflicts of interest in the Malta Environment and Planning Authority (MEPA), and its officials, including the director, the secretary and authority official Adrian Mallia, among others, would be investigated in terms of the law by a Labour government.
Mr Mizzi said a Labour government would once more separate the authority from the Environment Protection Department and create a ministry specifically for the environment.
While corruption would be stamped out and there would be no mercy for those who abused, the authority would be made more accountable.
The Labour government would also stop development in Kalkara valley and the project agreed with Medserv for rock cuttings from the oil industry to be landed in Malta.
Mr Mizzi said MEPA was being strong with the weak and weak with the strong. Some permits for large projects were somehow decided on the trot while applications for minor projects took a long time.
Abuses had become so rampant that MEPA staff were now resorting to blackmailing potential developers through the granting or withholding of permits.
Environmental impact studies were being requested to lengthen processes or so that certain people could make money. Indeed, some permits were not issued unless work on environment impact assessments was awarded to certain people.
There was also conflict of interest involving people who prepared MEPA plans and also worked for speculators.
Yet another example of corruption and incompetence was the way how MEPA had now decided that fish farms should be concentrated in one area to minimise their environmental impact. For all of 10 years experts had claimed that the fish farms did not harm the environment. Now that the opposite had been proved true, would those experts be held to account?
Mr Mizzi strongly criticised a decision taken by MEPA to allow oil companies to dump rock cuttings in Malta. Not only was there the risk of radioactivity in that material, but Malta was being reduced to being the dumping ground of the oil companies, Mr Mizzi said.
Could anybody explain how the application for this operation was rushed through the authority, without any consultation or environmental impact assessment having been held? It would be interesting to know who the developers were. Rather than oil wealth, Malta would have the radioactive waste of oil companies to contend with, simply to benefit the friends of friends.
Mr Mizzi asked how an application for the sanctioning of works and an extension to a quarry in Gozo was being decided by the Development Control Commission instead of the MEPA board.
The applicant had a number of illegal operations going on at the quarry and the authority was being requested to sanction the development of around 40 tumoli of land and the granting of a further extension of around 11 tumoli. Yet no environment impact assessment was being requested by the authority, without any study being conducted.
A permit for a new, large supermarket in Labour Avenue, Naxxar, had been issued in three hours in a most perverse manner on the pretext that no permit was required for such an application because it involved the change of use of four shops.
In reality, a permit was required and the application would usually cost hundreds of liri together with parking contributions of around Lm80,000. In this case, only Lm10 were paid.
Mr Mizzi said the merger of the Environment Protection Department with the Planning Authority was a forced marriage aimed at removing the identity of the Environment Protection Department.
It was not true that the merger had been requested by the EU. The merger had created an unnecessary monster and showed a lack of professionalism in the protection of the environment. Work which used to be done by the department had been taken over by PA officials at a far higher cost.
Mr Mizzi said that instead of being an autonomous institution, the majority of the members of MEPA were politically appointed.
He said it was the Labour government which started air quality tests. The present government left the equipment idle for two years, and was only doing something about it now. Yet air quality was below what was acceptable to the World Health Organisation.
Indeed, over the years the government had done nothing for the environment except draw up reports and carry out studies. Yet the government wanted to hide information that the sea was contaminated. The same applied to the state of Maghtab.
While under Labour, sea water analyses were made at the Sant' Antnin plant and Evans Labs for free, the tests were now being carried out by a private company and every sample cost more than Lm150.
Mr Mizzi said MEPA was plagued by internal struggles. Honest workers were put under pressure while the blue-eyed boys did whatever they wanted.
Even the Ombudsman had said too many injustices were taking place at MEPA.
The IT unit was a hotbed of spying on colleagues and tampering with e-mail messages.
Turning to the issue of hunting, Mr Mizzi said the director of the environment, together with the minister, was working on a plan to lead hunting to a natural death, by reducing the areas where hunting would be allowed, but this would only be made public after the next elections.
Mr Mizzi said the fact that there was now an all-time low of pending development applications at MEPA could also mean that fewer development applications were being submitted. There had never been as many planning applications as under the Labour government.
Mr Mizzi hit out at speculative projects, including the building going up at Vittoriosa and Kalkara. He also referred to the Qala referendum which had said an overwhelming "no" to the proposed building of a tourist village there. Despite that outcome, he said the lobbying at MEPA showed that the project would be given the green light.
Mr Mizzi said a Labour government would once more separate the planning authority from the Environment Protection Department and create a ministry specifically for the environment.
The authority would be made more accountable and its officials would be investigated and held responsible for the corruption and abuse there was in the authority.
Addressing himself to MEPA officials, Mr Mizzi said the people who would be investigated according to law included the director, the secretary, Adrian Mallia and other officials who had conflicts of interest and used their official positions for private consultancies.
Winding up, Home Affairs Minister Tonio Borg said Mr Mizzi had made all sort of allegations without producing any evidence.
Referring to the development application for the Naxxar supermarket, the minister said it was not true that a permit had been issued. Indeed, the developer had sued the authority for not having issued the permit!
Referring to Mr Mizzi's complaints on tampering of e-mails at the authority, Dr Borg said it was not MEPA but Mr Mizzi himself who wanted to tap e-mails. That was proved by a letter he himself had written on November 20 demanding access not just to internal e-mails but also e-mails sent from outside the authority and mails which would have been deleted. This request was refused by MEPA following legal advice. The authority only had a right to ensure that the e-mail system was only put to its proper use.
Dr Borg said the amalgamation of the Environment Protection Department with the Planning Authority had strengthened the powers of the department.
Dr Borg said he also could not understand the allegation Mr Mizzi made about the government planning to force hunting into a natural death.
Registration of the hunting areas and hides would not lead to fewer areas being used for this purpose. Indeed, registration was already required by law.
Concluding, Dr Borg said that there was no indication of abuse or corruption in the authority. Had there been, he would have asked the Commission Against Corruption to investigate, but he would then expect Mr Mizzi to shoulder his responsibility if no corruption was proved.
The estimates were approved after a division, with 30 votes in favour and 23 against.