MTA 'unaware' of consultant's conflict of interest

The Malta Tourism Authority seems to have been completely unaware of the conflict of interest that its consultant George Micallef had when he drafted a report on its behalf favouring tourism-linked development in Mistra, while also acting as a consultant to the Spin Valley project.

Reacting to a story in The Times that revealed Mr Micallef's conflicting position, the authority said in a statement that Mr Micallef's report was never referred to the MTA's chairman nor to any of its board members. Moreover, the statement added, "it does not result that the MTA was aware that Mr Micallef was also the consultant of the applicant for the said Mistra Bay development project". Mr Micallef resigned his position at the MTA on Monday, on the same day the Malta Environment and Planning Authority auditor - who had been asked by the Prime Minister to investigate the case - issued a damning verdict on the whole matter. He lambasted the Development Control Commission board that approved the outline permit for the project but also roped in the tourism authority and a "biased" report it had drafted in respect of the development.

It is standard procedure for Mepa to ask the tourism authority for its opinion when a development application involves a touristic project.

In this case, however, the auditor commented on the pivotal role - and this is something which is being pursued by the police in their investigations - of the MTA's favourable report.

In this connection, the auditor, Joe Falzon, commented specifically on the curious fact that parts of this "biased" report seemed to have been lifted, in certain cases word for word, from another report making the case for the development, this time by a consultant to the applicant.

Mr Falzon stopped short of naming the authors of both documents, seeing as the MTA report had not actually been signed by Mr Micallef but by one of the authority's directors, Mario Attard, as is customarily done.

However, The Times on Thursday revealed that the material author of both documents was the same person: George Micallef. While refusing to comment on the matter, Mr Micallef insisted on his innocence, saying that his resignation was not an admission of guilt.

The tourism authority, however, says that it will be conducting a complete review of the procedures used when processing such applications, as a result of the case, in a bid to ensure transparency. It also added that it will wait for the outcome of the pending police investigations into the case to determine whether any further action is warranted.

The newly-appointed parliamentary secretary for tourism, Mario de Marco, when contacted said there was the will to see this through.

"In this case, from what I can understand, the MTA was not aware of this situation (with Mr Micallef) and basically this should not happen, whoever may be at fault," he said.

He added, however, that the review should go beyond the issue of conflict of interest and look into improving the general transparency of the procedures implemented by the MTA in such cases.