PM shuns media on Mepa tour

The Prime Minister would not take questions from the media yesterday during his first tour of the Malta Environment and Planning Authority, which is now officially under his wing.

The event was one of his first official appearances in public after being sworn in last month and the very first opportunity for journalists to put questions to Dr Gonzi directly.

However, after giving a speech to the authority's staff, he proceeded directly to the boardroom with Mepa's top brass for a private meeting. The media were then informed that the event was over and that the Prime Minister would not be taking any questions.

"If you have any questions you can put them to the Prime Minister via e-mail," Dr Gonzi's press secretary told the journalists protesting about the arrangement.

Besides questions on the reform of the authority itself, Dr Gonzi would have likely faced quizzing on the Jeffrey Pullicino Orlando case.

Recently, Dr Gonzi refused to comment on whether Dr Pullicino Orlando - who is being investigated in connection with an outline permit for an open-air disco on ecologically sensitive land in Mistra belonging to him - had given the party all the facts before the election when he vehemently protested his innocence. Dr Gonzi said the issue was a party matter.

When asked on the PBS current affairs programme Dissett whether there were facts about the case that he had found out after the election or in the final days of the campaign, Dr Gonzi had answered, "What I found out was about the contract that was made public. I knew that there was some informal agreement, that was the description, but I didn't have all the details."

Dr Pullicino Orlando, on the other hand, had told The Times that he had given the party all the facts that had to do with him.

During his tour yesterday, the Prime Minister launched a draft code of ethics for the authority's employees. The code had actually been drafted by the authority's audit officer a while back. It had been presented to George Pullicino, who was then the minister responsible for Mepa, who, in turn, appointed a team of people to review and discuss it with the auditor Joe Falzon. An agreement had been reached late last year but the code was not implemented before the election.

Dr Gonzi said yesterday that the document was in draft form and that he was open to feedback from the employees. Addressing the staff, he said that among other things the code aimed to deal with the issue of conflict of interest, which needed to be stamped out for the authority's sake.

He was careful to state the good the authority had done in the years since its setting up before delving into the issues that have turned public opinion largely against Mepa.

The authority had helped improve the environment and raise awareness about it, he said, before going on to highlight the areas that need to be tackled in the reform which is now expected to take place. In this sense, he mentioned the need to make the authority more efficient and have it deal expeditiously with little matters that are not really contentious, precisely to make time for the more sticky and delicate cases.

Dr Gonzi also emphasised the need to make the authority more transparent and beef up enforcement. On this point, in fact, he referred to the Bill that had been drafted by Mr Pullicino last year which is meant to give the authority more power when it comes to enforcement. "I promise you that this will be one of the very first Bills to be passed through Parliament, and this is why we need Parliament to start as soon as possible. We cannot keep waiting for certain situations to resolve themselves; we need to get going," he said, presumably in reference to the election of the new Leader of the Opposition.