MEPA auditor's report on recycling plant

At first glance I thought that MEPA's public relations officer Sylvana DeBono's statement (The Sunday Times, April 1) was a plot for an April fool joke but, on second thoughts, I realised that dealing with the MEPA board has taught me not to take any chances.

My committee does not permit anyone, least of all the MEPA board, to state that what was said in our press conference is a blatant lie. Ms DeBono knows quite well that, if there is one entity on the island that has lost its credibility, it is not my committee.

The committee policy has always been clear: calling a spade a spade and so far it has never beaten about the bush. Everyone is well aware that my committee is not formed of 'yes men' or puppets. Fortunately we do not have to bow or serve anyone.

The committee was constituted to safeguard and defend the interests of the residents from the mocked, flawed process in connection with the Sant'Antnin recycling plant against the authorities involved, MEPA board members included, who shamefully approved the site selection and technologies studies without consulting the public.

Worse than that, decisions were taken behind closed doors in breach of MEPA's own rules and regulations. My committee was compelled to organise itself for Mepa's role in defending and acting as a shield to citizens against the oppressive has long defeated its own basic principles.

Let me now enter into the merits of this case. On December 26, 2006, the committee asked the Mepa auditor to investigate the whole process. According to a document in the committee's possession, the auditor investigated the process and sent the report to the MEPA board for their comments.

Instead Mepa lodged a complaint with the Ombudsman stipulating that, with the investigation carried out and its eventual publication, the report would prejudice MEPA vis-à-vis the pending appeals and others filed in the future.

The Ombudsman, after examining the auditor's reply referring to MEPA's complaint, wrote to the auditor that in his opinion it would not be correct on the auditor's part to announce his conclusions... etc.

I will leave it to your readers' discretion to see who is telling the truth. It wasn't the committee, or the auditor for that matter, who blocked the report. Perhaps a challenge would be in order at this stage. "MEPA - either withdraw your complaint submitted to the Ombudsman or declare that the MEPA board has no objection to the publication of the report".

We shall wait and see.