Inquiry into Xemxija mudslide

J.G. Vassallo takes on an investigative role in his highly charged correspondence on the recent incident at Xemxija (February 14).

Despite the need for improvement, the Malta Environment and Planning Authority's direct enforcement actions are at an all-time high. Notwithstanding all this, the Minister for Rural Affairs and the Environment, George Pullicino, is on record stating repeatedly that he is not satisfied with the effectiveness of enforcement carried out by Mepa. But before taking the cue and rushing to conclusions, Mr Vassallo should have also consulted with the latest enforcement statistics issued by Mepa.

The minister believes that more needs to be done by Mepa to use the existing legal tools at its disposal. There may be the need to extend these enforcement powers, in which case the necessary amendments to current regulations will be made. To this effect, the minister has already instructed Mepa to initiate the process to increase the maximum fine from Lm1,000 to Lm10,000.

Over the years there have been innumerable instances where Mepa has taken direct action to remove illegalities and many more instances where the owner removed the illegality immediately following the issue of an enforcement notice. The Ministry notes with satisfaction that, following the minister's speech in Parliament during the Mepa estimates debate last November, there has been a renewed effort to step up direct actions and the number of direct actions by Mepa has increased. The truth is that today there is greater compliance with development permits than there was in the past. Once the question is whether we think that is enough, the Ministry believes that more still needs to be done.

The setting up of the inquiry to look into the Xemxija happenings is also another step in this direction. The terms of reference for the inquiry are clear (hopefully for everyone) and state that, besides the Xemxija case, the enquiry should establish whether the current enforcement practices are adequate, and even more so, whether they are effective and conducive to the desired results.

Mr Vassallo speculates that there may have been some hidden agenda from Mepa to be weak with the strong and strong with the weak. Had this been the case, the inquiry on the Xemxija case would have never been ordered.

But since Mr Vassallo happens also to be an avid writer, the question beckons: What was Mr Vassallo's reaction during Labour's tenure when former Works Minister Charles Buhagiar stopped the then Environment Minister George Vella from using Public Works equipment to carry out a direct action operation? I am sure that given Mr Vassallo's verve on this matter, he did submit a similar contribution to the one published in The Times a few days ago. Or did he?

I will quote from the minister's concluding remarks in his recent parliamentary speech announcing the setting up of the inquiry. The law has to be enforced on everyone, whether big or small, and this is the culture that the government wants to see instilled. Mepa is no exception.