Lack of redress

Joseph Grech in his Talking Point (Safety and Mepa Don't Mix, February 16) asks pertinent questions to which we can give an answer based on our own personal experience.

There is no obligation for the Malta Environment and Planning Authority, the Malta Transport Authority (ADT) and other similar authorities to make due enquiries about safety or any other matter whatsoever before issuing a business permit. The ADT issued a public service garage permit in spite of the fact that the garage in question was actually an illegal construction, under a stop and enforcement notice from Mepa which had clearly laid down the condition that the garage would not be put to use until it issued a full compliance certificate.

The abusively obtained permit was not withdrawn, even after we drew the attention of the ADT, because it is now official policy to issue such permits forthwith without ascertaining the propriety of such permits.

The operations of Mepa are not adequately regulated by any law because it can be taken to court only "on points of law". The way in which it establishes its rules of procedures and the way it applies or fails to apply these procedures are beyond the jurisdiction of the law courts and of the Ombudsman.

The Planning Appeals Board does not supply any means of redress to the ordinary citizen against contested decisions of Mepa. The board grants a remedy preferentially and solely to the privileged building developer who is dissatisfied with the decisions of Mepa. The aggrieved citizen who had originally drawn the attention of Mepa to the abuse is gagged and frustratingly impotent before the appeals board.

I make a public appeal to our elected representatives in the European Parliament to ascertain if the European Union tolerates that the governments of its member states create ad hoc quasi-judicial tribunals that deprive its citizens of the right to seek redress in independent courts of law when they feel that they are being wronged by authorities which abuse the powers invested in them.