The government’s IT agency will be liable for a fine of up to €2,330 if it is found to have breached planning laws when it changed the façade of its new data centre in St Venera.

Mita was constrained to close off the site before the inclement weather could prevail

According to the planning authority, this paltry sum is the “major fine” allowed by law although it may also impose what is known as a planning gain – a levy which compensates the community for a development’s impact on it.

Last Thursday, the authority’s board decided to defer a decision on the building occupied by the Malta Information Technology Agency (Mita) pending a report from the enforcement directorate to establish whether the façade protrudes 20cm beyond the official building line.

The board also chastised Mita for having gone ahead with a fresh version of the façade despite not yet having the ­necessary planning permission. As a government agency, it said, it should have set an example and not broken planning laws.

But while he admitted the facade had been amended while the planning permit was still pending, the agency’s chairman Claudio Grech said that doing so was “logical” and in the public interest, given the repercussions of halting works.

Although Mita had applied for planning permission for the façade detail last May, Mepa had not issued a permit by September, Mr Grech complained.

“Despite striving hard to convince the respective authorities to accelerate the issuance of the permit, Mita was constrained to close off the site before the inclement weather could prevail,” he explained.

Had Mita not forged ahead with works to its headquarters and instead waited for Mepa to issue the necessary permit, Mr Grech said, it would have had to postpone the relocation of some of its servers at Gattard House in Blata l-Bajda.

As a result, the e-Learning Solution for all primary and secondary schools and the National Certification Authority infrastructure “would not have been implemented, with the obvious negative consequences,” Mr Grech continued.

He insisted that while he had full respect for Mepa and its chairman Austin Walker, six months from Mita’s original application the necessary permit remained outstanding.

In light of this delay and the negative effects postponing works would have had, Mr Grech felt that the decision to proceed with the works was the correct one.