Sliema mayor stopped from holding urgent council meeting

Sliema mayor Nikki Dimech was stopped from calling an emergency council meeting "to clear the air" with the executive secretary yesterday because the chosen time was outside that stipulated by law.

Local government director Martin Bugelli wrote to executive secretary Svetlana Curmi informing her the urgent meeting scheduled for 4 p.m. could not be held unless there was previous unanimous agreement among councillors.

Mr Bugelli said no council meetings, whether the monthly one or any other urgent meeting, could be held at that time because it was illegal to hold a council meeting before 5.30 p.m. without any record of unanimous approval of the meeting.

The meeting was, therefore, cancelled and Ms Curmi informed the councillors by phone and e-mail. However, the mayor's mobile phone was switched off and he did not check his e-mail, so he was surprised when he arrived at the council offices for the meeting, only to find the doors locked.

Eight of the 11 councillors were outside the office. Those not present were Nationalist councillors Cyrus Engerer, Joanna Gonzi and Julian Galea.

Mr Dimech told journalists he was unaware the meeting had been cancelled and said he would demand explanations from Mr Bugelli and Ms Curmi, with whom he had clashed on a number of occasions. In fact, he said he had called the urgent meeting "to clear the air" with her.

He stopped short of saying he was finding it impossible to work with Ms Curmi but simply said the council was "not functioning". He, however, admitted, he had not been to the council for about six to eight weeks because an investigation into alleged financial irregularities had started.

Ms Curmi was instrumental in flagging the financial irregularities, now being investigated by the government's Internal Audit Department, over the extension of a tender that was way beyond the amount the council could legally authorise without issuing a tender.

Councillors Martin Debono and Marianne Aquilina said they had met Ms Curmi on Thursday to discuss how to proceed on the administrative duties that had slowed down. They said Ms Curmi said she was finding it difficult to work with Mr Dimech.

Mr Debono said the council was not functioning and was not even seeing to the simple day-to-day functions of a council. "We don't even have paint for the yellow lines around Sliema. How much worse can it get?" he asked.

Contacted by The Times, Mr Bugelli contested the fact that the mayor had listed two items to be discussed in the urgent meeting when the law only allowed urgent meetings to discuss one item.