Saturday, 23rd August 2008
MTA chairman defends report on development of disco at Mistra
Mistra Bay
Malta Tourism Authority (MTA) chairman Sam Mifsud yesterday defended the report penned by the authority's former acting CEO who is facing charges over the Mistra development controversy.
Mr Mifsud said the authority believed that the north side of the island needed an area of entertainment to boost tourism.
He clarified that his position was based on the authority's policies to spread places of entertainment - currently focused in the St Julians/Paceville area - to the north and to develop the coast.
These policies were strictly based on tourism priorities and did not go into environmental or heritage considerations of any development, he said.
Mr Mifsud was testifying before Magistrate Lawrence Quintano, in the compilation of evidence against MTA former acting CEO George Micallef, 48, of St Julians, who is pleading not guilty to making a false declaration on and before last October.
The case revolves around a report written by Mr Micallef, who also acted as a consultant to the MTA.
In the report, Mr Micallef made a case for the proposed development of a discotheque in Mistra.
Testifying in a previous court sitting, Police Inspector Ian Abdilla said Mr Micallef told the police he had been asked by Nationalist MP Jeffrey Pullicino Orlando to write a favourable report about the proposed discotheque, which was to be developed on land owned by the MP.
Mr Micallef added that, irrespective of this, he would still have recommended the project from a purely touristic point of view.
On taking the witness stand yesterday, Mr Mifsud said he first saw the report when investigating police brought it to his attention.
He added that it was not unusual for the MTA to draw up reports about where establishments were needed adding that the Malta Environment and Planning Authority requested such reports on a regular basis.
During cross-examination, Mr Mifsud was shown a copy of a The Times article, dated March 30, where he was quoted as saying that he defended the document and stood by its contents "to this day" in the sense that the (north) needed places of entertainment to boost tourism.
Mr Mifsud reconfirmed this position and stressed that this was based on MTA policies: to increase places of entertainment in the north and to develop the coast.
In fact, the authority had submitted an application for the rehabilitation of Mistra Bay, he said.
He stressed that his stand (regarding the document) was based solely on a tourism point of view and that the authority did not go into environmental or heritage matters.
The case continues.
Police Inspectors Angelo Gafà and Ian Abdilla prosecuted.
Lawyers Joseph Giglio and Stephen Tonna Lowell appeared for Mr Micallef.
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Comments
Stand up and be counted, resign now.
Board of Directors at MTA please note!
Was this a postion taken by the Board of Directors, if yes please all resign!
If not, do Malta a favour and ask Sam MIfsud to resign now
And by the Way, Rehabilitation of Mistra Bay is next.......hands of Mistra Bay and any other Natura2000 site for all that matters too
In your role as tourism supremo, do you sincerely feel the need to spoil more of our countryside for the sake of tourism? Why don't you take a crash course in creativity and see what everyone else elsewhere is doing?
This is disgusting and your actions sicken me and I believe most decent persons.
Joe Morana
However, may I politely ask the Chairman whether the environment ALSO plays an important part in the touristic activities on these islands? Not only that, but I believe that if you were to further destroy the environment we have in Malta ....you will find that the tourists will simplyl not come!
For, even if you had to take a look at the picture kindly provided by TT, you would see for yourself what such a 'development' would have destroyed: pristine, virgin land! Our countryside, the little that we have left.
Or does the MTA want to convert Malta into another Ibiza?
'the north side of the island needed an area of entertainment to boost tourism.'
Let's study this assertion.
An area of entertainment in the north side of the island - may I ask what Bugibba, Qawra, St Paul's Bay and even Mellieha, are all about if not 'areas of entertainment'???? And arent' they in the North?
So, most respectfully, what is the MTA Chairman on about?
So according to Mr.Sam Mifsud he defended the report on the sole basis of MTA policies!
Incredible no?
And what about personal conscience?
Play it again, Sam.
Mistra bananas