A case of political blackmail

The election is still a couple of years away but everything is already becoming political. What a section of the press reported on Green MT and what Labour MP Leo Brincat repeated and highlighted has not an iota of fact hanging to it. It is pure political conjecture.

Green MT never had a problem of a shortfall in supply of recyclable materials collected. Indeed, it has always registered excess supply far beyond what Green MT members (and not Green MT itself) need to be able to qualify for an eco contribution refund. Why should a scheme, which is over supplied, have to inflate the supply figures? There was never any logic for Green Mt to inflate any figure.

Green MT is surprised that Mario de Marco even bothered to raise an eyebrow. Dr de Marco, through Peter Portelli, who is chairman of the Approving Body with direct responsibility for the waste management compliance schemes, has all the facts readily at hand.

George Pullicino and Chris Ciantar at the Ministry of Resources and Rural Affairs have enough facts and figures to prove that what Mr Brincat states is all conjecture.

Chris Said, Parliamentary Secretary for Local Government, has the facts to prove that all collections and payments to contractors in all localities were done under government instructions and properly audited.

The Malta Environment and Planning Authority has all the audit findings and quarterly and annual reports giving all the details of the Green MT operations.

All this is also available to Mr Brincat.

Green MT has nothing whatsoever to hide and no reason to twist or inflate anything. Green MT is a not-for-profit organisation. There are no private shareholders and those who profit are the members and the community through a provision of a service that would not have existed were it not for the dedication of Green MT’s directors, employees, contractors, 41 participating local councils and Green MT’s 1,200 members.

As a professional banker and former Minister of Finance, Mr Brincat should have known better. Prudence should have led him first to enquire with Green MT and only in the event of not being satisfied move on to other options.

He fails to understand how the whole process of events happened. When the separated waste collections started, only Green MT could offer that service.

GreenPak, begrudgingly joined later after the law was amended to impose on schemes a 60 per cent collection quota in local council areas. At that crucial stage, for reasons only known to him Labour deputy leader Toni Abela instructed local councils with a Labour majority, not to join Green MT. Notwithstanding, Green MT signed contracts with 16 Labour councils. But many were bullied away.

This uncalled for political interference in a purely local council administrative matter is, we believe, also the main cause behind the latest political outburst.

As Labour-led local councils dithered and GreenPak stalled, Green MT accepted the responsibility, under specific instructions of the competent ministry, to carry out the collections from selected local council areas. The collection of all grey bags was already taking place and paid directly by the government and when Green MT moved in it carried on with the same contractors but rather than by the government these they were paid by Green MT.

There was no secret about this as Mr Brincat implies. The issue was really one of the contractors and not so much of the local councils. Mr Brincat claims that some local councils were not aware of what was happening. Green MT doubts this because it is practically impossible for local council administrations not to know what is happening with their most important contractor and not to bother to ask who is paying.

Mr Brincat seems unaware of how the eco contribution refund and exemptions regime works. He wrongly believes that it is easily open to malfeasance. The mechanism involves four government authorities: the VAT Department, the Ministry of Finance, the Approving Authority and, in the case of Green MT, the state-owned Wasteserve, which issues the certificates of amounts collected and paid for by Green MT. The refund is not given to Green MT but directly to the applying enterprise and the scheme has nothing whatsoever to do with the refund adjudicating process. The whole audit trail is verified by independent environment auditors appointed by Green MT from a list provided by Mepa.

More than disrespect towards the professionals working in Green MT, Mr Brincat is showing great irreverence towards the civil servants and public officers managing the entities men. All this information could have been made available to him if only he asked for it before his public declarations. Without even the flimsiest of evidence, he sheds doubts and suspicions on senior public officers and accusesGreen MT of suspected fraud.

This smells of political blackmail. It is a political game that private business managers should not be involved in. Green MT is the pride of not only its directors, employees and all 1,200 members but also enjoys the satisfaction and constant support of 41 local councils and 270,000 persons whose waste separation is handled and supported weekly by Green MT.

Green MT consistently surpassed the 70 per cent threshold needed to cover the claims of all its members and the 60 per cent that had to be collected from local councils. There was never any reason to inflate or fiddle with statistics.

Dr de Marco can order whatever investigation he may think is necessary on an issue that does not even have the barest thread to hang to. Green MT has nothing to hide. But to private enterprise, he will be sending the wrong message. If dealing with the government places private enterprise under constant threat and, rather than being defended, they are treated with suspicion when under frivolous attacks, then we might as well all go home. That’s exactly what political blackmail is all about.

The author is chief executive officer of Green MT.