'Black dust report' - Mepa chairman apologises to House committee

Mepa chairman Austin Walker this afternoon apologised to a Parliamentary Committee after a report on the cause of the 'black dust' problem was published before being handed to the committee.

The report, drawn up by Prof Alfred Vella at the request of Mepa, found that emissions from the Marsa power station were the most likely cause of the black dust.

Mr Walker, who was speaking at a meeting of the committee tasked by Parliament to consider the causes of the black dust, said that the delay was only caused by a procedural administrative mistake.

At the beginning of the meeting, Opposition environment spokesman Leo Brincat hit out at Mepa and said it was simply unacceptable that the report was completed in March but was only disclosed a few days ago.

He only learnt about it when a journalist read a report on timesofmalta.com and phoned him.

Mr Brincat said Mepa needed to explain who had decided to hold the report for months and for what reason. Was it coincidental or not that the report was only issued after a visit to Malta by the EU’s environment commissioner, who indicated that the EU did not look kindly to extending the life of the Marsa power station. Was publication also timed to follow the launching of the environment policy?

It was also unacceptable that after this Mepa gaffe, MPs were only today, a few minutes before this meeting, handed a Mepa dossier related to this issue, giving them no chance to read it.   

Mr Speaker Michael Frendo, who presides the committee, said he was also requesting an explanation from Mepa over how the committee was not informed about the report before it was published on the media.

Mr Walker said this was a procedural mistake, for which he wished to apologise. He said that when he had inquired about procedure, through the permanent secretary, Mepa was told to publish the report and then present it to the committee.

He said publication was delayed by a number of factors, including the replacement of the Director of the environment, industrial action at Hexagon Hse and the marriage of the unit head. He said that Parliamentary Secretary Mario de Marco was told about the report at the end of February, and he requested a non-technical executive summary.

Mr Walker said the executive summary was completed in March and the delay was, therefore, not caused by the executive summary. Its publication was not linked to the visit by the EU environment commissioner or the publication of the national environment committee.

Speaker Michael Frendo said the main concern of the committee was that the members had learnt of the report through the media when this was an ad hoc committee appointed by Parliament specifically to discuss the subject matter of the report.

Nationalist MP Jesmond Mugliett said what had happened with regard to the publication of the report added insult to injury caused when it was realised that Mepa had acted months after it learnt that the precipitators on the power chimneys were not working. All this reinforced a lack of confidence in the monitoring system in this country.

Mr Walker said Mepa never intended to hide the report in any way.

The committee meeting is still in progress.