Approving body proves Green MT right

The approving body for eco-contributions said that prima facie evidence indicated Green MT had “the right and obligation” to collect waste from four localities.

It has been reported that Green MT, a subsidiary of the Chamber for Small and Medium Enterprise – GRTU, had inflated figures by collecting waste from councils it did not have a contract with to be eligible for a permit for waste collection by the environment and plan­­­ning authority. The localities mentioned were Birżebbuġa, Tarxien, Żabbar and Żejtun.

The approving body said yesterday it was “in receipt of the invoices that show that Green MT paid for the waste collected from these four localities in question during the period June to December 2009”.

This period, it said, was a “transitional period” during which local councils were being encouraged to enter into an agreement with either of the two waste recovery schemes.

“During this period both recovery schemes were assuming the management of bring-in sites, the responsibility of which was being devolved to local councils,” the approving body said.

It transpired that some form of contractual obligation existed allowing Green MT to pay for and collect waste from the localities in question. “As a result, the approving body is of the opinion that, prima facie, Green MT paid for the waste and, therefore, had the right and obligation to include the waste collected from these localities in their report.”

It said it would “carry out an audit of the data submitted by both schemes to validate their operations and the operations of their service providers for the period July 2009 to end December 2010”.

Earlier yesterday, Labour environment spokesman Leo Brincat called on the government to say when the investigations on “allegations of fraud had begun”, whether it was more than two months ago when accusations had reached the planning authority and Wasteserv, or whether it was triggered by the media reports.