The CEO of the Planning Authority, Johann Buttigieg will stay in his post and will not be taking up another assignment, because he still had a lot to give, Infrastructure Minister Ian Borg told parliament on Monday morning.

He was reacting to media reports as the House started to debate the financial estimates of the authority. 

Referring to those who had criticised the government for taking power and resources away from local councils during the ongoing debate on the Infrastructure Malta Bill, he pointed out that the Planning Authority had a fund of millions of euros, which had been set aside to be used by local councils.

Yet the fund was “lying dormant,”  and local councils needed to apply for this funding.

During the same debate, the Parliamentary Secretary for Planning, Chris Agius, referred to a story appearing in the Times of Malta concerning the financial package of over €100,000 enjoyed by Mr Buttigieg.

He said that Austin Walker, the CEO appointed to helm the Planning Authority in 2008, had at the time received a considerably higher salary, and had justified it by arguing that “If you decide to buy an expensive car, than you have to pay for it.”

Mr Agius went on to add that the Planning Authority had in recent years become a self-sustaining entity with a positive balance of €8.7 million at the end of 2017. Applications of all sort had increased since 2012, tripling in the case of applications for apartments and maisonettes and reaching a total of 11,300 applications in 2017, up 24% from the previous year.

Opposition MP Toni Bezzina argued that local councils were not benefiting from the PA Fund because of the “long and bureaucratic” process required to apply.

He also criticised the fact that the regularization scheme introduced following the MEPA demerger, and which was helping to fund various PA schemes including the popular ‘Irrestawra Darek’ (Restore your Home) scheme, was “stealing money from families’ mouths,” because it failed to distinguish between construction work undertaken without any permit and that which deviated slightly from approved plans.

Whereas a scheme launched in 2012 had allowed homeowners to pay a fixed fine of €250 in order to sanction minor deviations from approved plans, he said, the new regularization scheme calculated fees on the basis of the square footage of the entire development, and required applicants to pay thousands of Euro. These rates would furthermore be increasing by 25% as of September 2018.

To this, Mr Agius responded that the “CTB” scheme referred to by Mr Bezzina had not resulted in the issuance of any permits, but simply allowed the sanctioning of the illegalities in question.

Pembroke land transferred cheaply for db Group project

Opposition MP Marthese Portelli focussed on the pending application for the development of the ITS site in Pembroke. She made reference to the fact that the tender for the sale of the site had been adjudicated by Projects Malta, which was then the responsibility of Minister Konrad Mizzi.

Questioning the fact that the tender for the land concession had been issued during Christmas recess, she criticised its “misleading” title, which made no explicit reference to the fact that residential developments would be considered. She also questioned the €10,000 fee required for the collection of the tender document, which had ultimately resulted in only one submission.

Ms Portelli said that while the 24,000 sqm site had been sold for €5 million up-front and €10 million to be paid over seven years - interest free - other, much smaller sites in the vicinity had sold for relatively higher amounts, such as a 600sqm site in a less prestigious area, which had sold for €3.2 million.

Ms Portelli also criticised the government for failing to suspend the db Group’s application despite the fact that the land concession was under investigation by the National Audit Office.

Pointing out that the Planning Authority’s own Design Advisory Board had registered its disapproval with the design of the proposed development, she called for an appropriate master plan for the area to be drawn up before the commencement of any work on the site, in order to avoid infrastructural issues in the future.