Mepa Appeals Board rejects call for audit officers to testify

The Malta Environment and Planning Authority Appeals Board has rejected a request to have the authority's audit office members testify on the findings of a confidential report dealing with the controversial Marsascala waste recycling plant.

The board, chaired by lawyer Ian Spiteri Bailey, upheld the objection by Mepa, which is defending its position in the face of charges of gross irregularities in its decision to approve the Marsascala plant's upgrading project.

The report on which Joe Falzon and Carmel Cacopardo - audit officer and former investigating officer respectively - were meant to give evidence "cannot constitute proof" with regard to the claims raised by the lobby fighting the development, the board has decreed. Mepa's lawyer had formally objected to the officers giving evidence, stating, among other things, that their testimony was "not relevant".

It had been the same authority that asked the Ombudsman last February to recommend that the report be kept under wraps, on grounds that it would be prejudicial to the appeals process.

The Ombudsman upheld Mepa's interpretation and advised the audit officer not to release the document.

Mr Falzon had certain reservations about the Ombudsman's recommendation but decided to respect his advice and withheld the report.

The committee contesting the development requested that the document be produced as evidence. But the appeals board rejected the request, decreeing last May that "the report cannot constitute proof".

In turn, the committee asked that Mr Falzon and Mr Cacopardo testify. The appeals board has, however, also rejected this latest request on the same grounds.

The committee has been campaigning for the publication of the report, claiming its contents would expose gross irregularities in the process leading to the approval of the plant's upgrade.

The committee said it had uncovered a number of documents from Mepa's own files that raise questions about the process.

In an internal Mepa e-mail, quoted in a dossier compiled by the lobby, one of the authority's officials says the decision to site an upgraded waste recycling plant in Sant'Antnin, Marsascala, was a "forgone conclusion" despite the studies commissioned in connection with the project.