Editorial

Last April, some two months after the expiry of his contract as Mepa's audit officer, Joe Falzon's re-appointment was confirmed by the Minister for Rural Affairs and the Environment. This was greeted with relief by those who had followed the work done by the audit officer over the previous two years.

However, three months after his re-appointment, the audit officer finds himself hobbled in his work by a dispute over his choice of investigating officer whose re-appointment is being resisted by the Mepa chairman. Since the audit officer is engaged only on a part-time basis, the appointment of the investigating officer is critical to his ability to fulfil his job effectively.

On the face of it, it would be difficult, looking in from the outside, to understand both why the Mepa chairman should resist the re-appointment of Carmel Cacopardo as the investigating officer, given his proven effectiveness over the past few years and his detailed knowledge of the often Byzantine workings of Malta's planning law, and also why the audit officer's own judgement in his re-appointment is being called into question. The chairman has offered no reasons for refusing the re-appointment of Mr Cacopardo.

Without the input of the investigating officer, whose task it is to ferret out the truth or otherwise of particular planning cases, the audit officer's capacity to operate will be stunted. It is to be hoped that this is not what lies behind Mepa's objection to the name put forward by the audit officer. While it may be understandable for Mepa to wish for less intrusive investigation by the audit officer, the whole point is that if the board and Mepa officials are conducting themselves in a proper and efficient manner, then they have nothing to fear from even the most zealous investigating officer.

The role of the audit officer is fundamental to a transparent and fully accountable planning authority. Mepa carries weight. What it does - or occasionally fails to do - affects the quality of life of every person living in Malta today and generations of Maltese still to come. It is probably the agency in government that wields the greatest clout on the daily lives of all of us. The environmental and planning judgements it reaches, how it operates, its probity and efficiency make a signal contribution - for better or for worse - to virtually every aspect of Maltese life.

It is, therefore, vitally important that the planning decisions its reaches should be subject to the closest scrutiny and audit. The Mepa board may not like it when decisions are questioned or criticised, but it is essential that the judgements of an agency whose over-riding role is to serve the people, should be closely examined and held to account. Those who do not like the heat can freely decide to leave the kitchen.

It is, therefore, a matter of concern that there has not been a fully functioning audit office for some months now. It is an issue which needs urgently to be resolved.

Minister George Pullicino is to be congratulated for having appointed the audit officer in the first place. It was a most enlightened and overdue decision.

Its value has lain in enhancing confidence in the system's transparency. It has been salutary for those involved and healthy for the better functioning of Mepa. Unless there are major reasons of which the people are unaware for rejecting the audit officer's choice of investigating officer, the minister should now step in by giving him the backing and support he so clearly requires.