MEPA should not be run by political appointees - AD

The top brass of the Malta Environment and Planning Authority (MEPA) should not be politically appointed as they are now, Alternattiva Demokratika chairman Harry Vassallo said yesterday, in the wake of the damning inquiry report on a Xemxija case.

The report, published on Monday, finds MEPA indirectly responsible for January's mudslide in Xemxija as the authority did not use all its power to stop illegal excavations by developers Polidano Brothers.

There was no call for resignations in AD's first official pronouncement on the report, despite the damning nature of the document. However, the party did comment on the power structure of the authority and beyond.

"AD believes the authority should not be run by political appointees. Neither should working architects be on the board as is the case now... that situation is ridiculous," Dr Vassallo said.

Both the way the developers were handled in connection with this and other cases, Dr Vassallo argued, and the report's recommendations pose a challenge to the existing political power structure which will now be caught between the need to bring about change and the hidden interests which have allowed matters to drift so far away from what all reasonable citizens have a right to expect from their government.

Among its most biting comments, the inquiry board, led by MEPA's own auditor Joe Falzon, concludes that the planning authority is "impotent" with big developers and that Polidano Brothers were left to do as they pleased in Xemxija before January's incident.

"Unless the financing of political parties is addressed and hidden financing made a criminal offence all our national assets will remain at risk," Dr Vassallo charged. "The report does not mention the word 'corruption' in any one of its 45 pages but the smell of it is everywhere."

Referring to the report's tone and its findings, Dr Vassallo said that he was "pleasantly surprised" by its frankness and thoroughness. "We had lost hope that there will ever be such a strong official pronouncement," he said.

The condemnation that Mepa is strong with the weak is no longer an allegation, he continued. "None of the report's statements come as a surprise, except for the specific statistics of this case, but to have them so clearly articulated at long last is a cause for celebration."

The inquiry was ordered in February after a mudslide at the site was exposed by The Times. Our sister paper later reported that the excavations, carried out over a number of years, were not covered by any sort of permit. The slide dragged the earth from beneath part of the foundations of the neighbouring residence, leaving it hanging precariously in mid-air.

The family living in the house had been evacuated by the developer shortly before.

"The facts are there for all to see," Dr Vassallo continued. "MEPA failed to use the powers at its disposal inviting the developer to keep flaunting the law.

'The fact that the developer has ignored 82 enforcement and stop notices issued against him in connection with various projects is one thing... that MEPA was not moved to do something about the situation until a near catastrophe took place is worse," he said.

Moreover, he argued, the way MEPA's technical staff co-operated with the board of inquiry in the production of such a negative statement is evidence of their long-standing frustration with the situation.

Later in the day MEPA reacted, pointed out that the report never says that the technical staff were not allowed to take action.

MEPA said that in its own reaction to the report last Thursday, the authority's chairman Andrew Calleja said that MEPA had discussed the findings of the report and its recommendations and that indeed most of the measures which were recommended are already being taken.

But Dr Vassallo called for more reports of the kind in areas which were beyond this inquiry's terms of reference. The lack of effective remedies to third parties when they are affected by an illegal development and the handicaps which objectors face in the planning process, especially when it comes to big developments, is a "barefaced insult", he said.

AD has made the document available on its Websites www.alternattiva.org.mt and www.adgozo.com. The document may also be downloaded from the Department of Information's Website www. doi.gov.mt.