The Malta Environment and Planning Authority's outgoing investigating officer has decided to take legal action against the chairman and the board of directors.

Carmel Cacopardo who is at the centre of a tug-of-war between authority chairman Andrew Calleja and audit officer Joe Falzon over his contract's renewal said yesterday he feels the reasons given by the authority for objecting to his reappointment breach his fundamental human rights.

"For this reason," he said in a statement, "I have instructed my lawyer to initiate legal proceedings, for the second time since 1984, in order for those responsible for this breach to pay for their actions."

The reference to 1984 stems from legal action Mr Cacopardo had taken against then Public Works Minister Lorry Sant. The Constitutional Court had found in favour of Mr Cacopardo.

Mr Calleja explained the board's misgivings about Mr Cacopardo in a letter Mepa sent to Environment Minister George Pullicino last Monday. He said the board is concerned about Mr Cacopardo's articles in newspapers and, in particular, by the fact that he has questioned the credentials of the man recently appointed director for environment protection, a post for which Mr Cacopardo himself had applied.

Mr Calleja said Mr Cacopardo had chaired a political meeting about Mepa organised by Alternattiva Demokratika.

Both Mr Cacopardo and Mr Falzon dismissed the claims.

"Had he attacked Mepa on the recent Rahla l-Hamra case," Mr Falzon said in reference to Mepa's comments on Mr Cacopardo's writings in the press, "I would have understood the authority's arguments. But one can make general arguments in public about the authority without having to be accused of having a bias. Following Mepa's logic, if a judge writes an article about the law this means he cannot preside over a case."

Moreover, in respect to the issue concerning his chairing a political activity, Mr Falzon pointed out that there were board members forming part of the political parties' "inner circles" and that the authority employed MPs.

"Marie Briguglio, who works for Mepa, chaired a meeting similar to that chaired by Carmel Cacopardo at the PN general conference. Why is there no problem there? Not to mention that Carmel Cacopardo himself was a PN candidate. Why was this not a problem previously?"

In the meantime, Mepa issued a statement yesterday afternoon saying the board and the audit officer had decided to shelve the dispute over Mr Cacopardo's reinstatement and wait for the government's reaction to a proposal made by the Ombudsman. Earlier in the day, the Ombudsman proposed that his office provide the administrative backup for Mepa's audit office, which means the decision over the employment of the investigating officer would be settled between the audit officer and the Ombudsman rather than the Mepa board.

When contacted yesterday, Mr Cacopardo said he did not know anything about the proposal and that he would be proceeding with the legal action notwithstanding. His lawyer is expected to file a judicial letter this morning, likely to be followed by further proceedings.

Sign up to our free newsletters

Get the best updates straight to your inbox:
Please select at least one mailing list.

You can unsubscribe at any time by clicking the link in the footer of our emails. We use Mailchimp as our marketing platform. By subscribing, you acknowledge that your information will be transferred to Mailchimp for processing.