Mepa auditor's report blocked

A report by the Malta Environment and Planning Authority's audit office, on the controversial go-ahead to upgrade the waste recycling plant in Marsascala, will not be released, on the advice of the Ombudsman.

The Committee Against The Proposed Waste Recycling Plant had asked the audit officer to look into Mepa's approval of the plant's upgrading, claiming, on the basis of a dossier it compiled, that the decision was a "forgone conclusion".

However, the lobby has now been informed, through a letter from audit officer Joe Falzon, that the report will not be released because the Ombudsman deems its findings to be prejudicial to proceedings instituted by the lobby group before Mepa's appeals board.

Mepa sources told The Times that on receiving an advance copy of the report, the authority's lawyers, as was the norm, sought the Ombudsman's opinion on whether the report's findings could be made public in view of the pending appeal.

In his letter, the audit officer tells the complainants that the Ombudsman advised him that it would not be "prudent" to release the report given the appeal proceedings.

Ironically, one of the committee's objections to Mepa's final decision on the plant, which came in December, was precisely that an appeal on the outline development permit was still pending.

When contacted, the committee's secretary Joe Sant, confirmed the gist of the letter but would not comment further. He said the committee intended giving its full reaction to the press tomorrow.

Besides filing the appeal, the committee had initiated proceedings before the Constitutional Court and presented EU Commissioner Stavros Dimas with an official complaint. The committee also forwarded Mr Dimas the dossier it compiled, which includes internal Mepa correspondence in which a number of the authority's officials express their concern about the process which eventually led to the approval of the plant.

Late last month Mepa refused to release minutes of the public meeting during which the plant's application was approved. The Ombudsman, however, recommended that the minutes be released as soon as possible.