One fine day in September 2009 people in many parts of the island woke up to a strong unpleasant odour in the air – a pervasive smell of rotten eggs or boiled cabbage. It was in fact the smell of the hazardous chemical called mercaptan, burned illegally by people from Enemalta in a field outside Mġarr.
The story of how the chemical came to be disposed of in this most irresponsible manner is one of absolute shame. It shows glaring lack of transparency and accountability in a state corporation that already has more than enough problems to worry about.
The shortcomings add to the general perception, often well grounded, that in Malta anything is acceptable. A state corporation breaking multiple laws to burn hundreds of gallons of the dangerous chemical is a matter that ought to seriously preoccupy any administration.
True, an inquiry has now been carried out, but inquiries, essential as they are to find out the truth, are not enough. It is the lessons learned that count most, provided that adequate heed is taken of them in time. But, besides the short-term measures required to prevent such shortcomings from happening, what is required most is the entrenchment of a culture of proper administration and accountability.
There have been far too many cases in recent years showing serious lack of internal controls. Two that come readily to mind are the fraud that happened at the VAT department some years ago and the loss of over €30 million in the execution of two contracts at the dockyard before the government had to close down the shipyard. The question this newspaper had put at the time of the fraud case was: How is it possible that fraud on such a scale could go undetected for so long? It was, just as it was possible for a job of the size that was done on the Fairmount at the dockyard to be considered a loss-making venture before work had even begun.
Inquiries will not erase the damage done, and the sense of shame that ought to be felt over such matters will never be enough to compensate for shortcomings. The dockyard had to be kept afloat through the taxpayers’ money for many years, until finally the ship-repairing facility was privatised. But the country still has state entities that continue to give serious financial headaches, such as Enemalta, whose debt has now soared to over €600 million, and Air Malta, which is now being restructured.
The mind simply boggles at the kind of shortcomings that the inquiry has found in the latest case of lack of responsibility and accountability, that of the illegal burning of the hazardous chemical. The inquiry found that the corporation had not obtained the necessary environmental permits, had not kept adequate records and had failed to consult its own internal experts or the environmental authority throughout the incident. But there is more, much more. According to the corporation’s chairman, there was “an almost complete lack of paper trail of how certain important decisions had been taken and by whom”. Does not this suggest serious shortcomings in the corporation’s internal control?
The inquiry has exonerated the corporation’s board of directors, arguing that it appeared that they had not been made aware of the situation at any time. This may very well have been the case, but who is ultimately responsible for the keeping of effective internal control in the corporation’s operations?