Mepa procedures to be speeded up

The Malta Environment and Planning Authority should be able to process development applications faster under plans to overhaul the Development Control Section (DCS) responsible for this task.

Environment Minister George Pullicino yesterday announced that the section - the target of most of the criticism directed at the authority - is to be restructured.

The first tangible results, he said, should be evident by next March.

The DCS and other sectors at Mepa have been subjected to audits with the aim of improving the general operation of the authority. One of the audits, carried out by British consultant Lesley Robbinson, revealed that some six per cent of reports drawn up by Mepa's case officers were inadequate.

The report also revealed, to their credit, that Maltese case officers have triple the workload those in the UK.

The Management Efficiency Unit has also reviewed Mepa's system and has drafted a programme aimed at restructuring the DCS's way of working and improving the authority's customer care service.

Instead of a nine-stage queuing system, the new management system, called a cell structure, will be a single-stage system whereby management cells are responsible for an application from start to finish.

In practice, this should end the duplication of work as well as the need to refer matters to clients repeatedly. Moreover, the change should ensure more accountability since the ultimate responsibility of the whole process will rest on the managers of these cells.

The new system will be ushered in by a "change management team" which will include seven members representing the ministry, the Management Efficiency Unit, Mepa and the Mepa's users committee. Mepa's management will also undergo training in the process.

"Like any organisation that aims at serving its clients well, Mepa has to undergo change from time to time," Minister Pullicino said. "The organisation is not perfect... there are a number of things that can be criticised but there are a number of positive things that were introduced but are often taken for granted."

He referred mainly to the fact that the authority had become more transparent over the past few years and that it was making information related to development applications more widely available, even via the internet.

"Before, as an architect, I get to know certain things that were written by Mepa about my clients' cases at a late stage and not during the process, as is the case now," he emphasised.

As for Mepa's clients, Mr Pullicino said inadequacies had been found in the reports made by applicants and their architects. "Despite the commendable efforts made by the chamber of architects over the past few years more needs to be done," he said.

"Given the dominant position of the construction industry in the economy and the limitations of space characterising the island, all in all, I would be more worried if Mepa were not the target of criticism as is the case now...we must not forget the point of departure." Malta, he said, had gone from a situation where the sector was completely unregulated to one where it is regulated by a dedicated authority.

"Despite this regulation, however, the sector thrives, perhaps at a speed faster than recommendable, some would say."