Former environment minister George Pullicino yesterday categorically denied a claim, made by a former director of planning, that there used to be daily political interference at Mepa.
“I absolutely deny any form of interference in any enforcement decisions when I was minister. I always fully backed and supported all enforcement actions taken by the authority,” Mr Pullicino said.
Mr Pullicino was the minister responsible for the Malta Environment and Planning Authority between 2002 until 2008.
Speaking on last Tuesday’s current affairs programme Times Talk, Stephen Farrugia, who was director of planning between 2003 and 2004 and is now president of the Chamber of Architects, said he had “daily” political interference over enforcement decisions made against environmental abusers.
Mr Pullicino said: “I was, and still am, contacted by people about their cases and all I used to do was to pass on the message to Mepa but without any obligation whatsoever.”
He said the final decision was always taken by the enforcement unit – it was always “up to their discretion” and all planning officials carried the “responsibility for their decisions”.
Mr Pullicino reiterated that he fully backed up all decisions on enforcement action taken by Mepa “even when there were other cases that should have been handled before”.
He denied ever requesting that a particular case of enforcement should not be handled.
All I used to do was to pass on the message to Mepa but without any obligation whatsoever
“There were cases – some even reported in the media – where enforcement was required but nothing was done”. When asked to individually mention these cases, Mr Pullicino refused.
He said he had long insisted that Mepa authorities should draw up a full list of priorities and a programme for enforcement.
“I always told all planning officials they had to act ethically – meaning they always had to see that things were done well as they were responsible for their decisions,” Mr Pullicino said.
To ensure complete transparency, Mr Pullicino said he had completely relinquished any partnership with his former firm – even though ministers were allowed to remain silent partners. “This was my personal choice so that no one could accuse me of any favouritism,” he said.
Alternattiva Demokratika deputy chairman Carmel Cacopardo said Mr Farrugia’s claims were “absolutely shocking” and one could understand how developers Polidano Brothers were allowed to build illegalities all over Malta.
“It is now the Prime Minister’s duty to show he means business by acting vigorously against all illegalities. Anything less will continue proving that even this government is in the pockets of Malta’s cowboy contractors and developers,” he said.
He also expressed concern that a large number of enforcement files related to enforcement had been deleted from the planning authority’s website.
“This tampering with official data signifies that the fight against abuse also has to deal with collusion from a small number of Mepa employees and it is indeed unfortunate that Mepa took some time to realise the scale of this abusive action that may have serious repercussions,” he said.