A board of inquiry found no malicious or criminal intent in the behaviour of employees within the Planning Directorate for the way they processed two planning applications

The two cases, relating to the construction of a supermarket in Luqa, approved in April 2007 and for the construction of four semi-detached and one detached bungalow, approved in February 2008, were subject to an investigation by the Malta Environment and Planning Authority’s audit officer.

Upon receiving his preliminary reports, the Mepa board commissioned an adhoc board of inquiry to carry out its investigation into these two cases following a number of conclusions and recommendations highlighted by the officer.

The board of inquiry was commissioned to specifically investigate whether, in the evaluation of both these two applications, the Planning Directorate adhered to the relevant policies for the respective sites; gave the policies enough weight and whether they used their discretion more than they were authorized to do.

The board was also responsible to identify whether there were enough reasons for disciplinary action to be taken against any of the employees and whether there was enough evidence for the authority to pass on these cases to the police.

Although the board of inquiry found no illegal behaviour from the part of the employees involved with these cases, it made a series of recommendations for the authority to consider for implementation.

These include that the Planning Directorate is timely informed of all instructions issued by the Mepa board that could affect the deliberations and outcome of recommendation when processing planning applications.

The board also recommended that while it might be acceptable to a degree that there was a certain amount of flexibility in the interpretation of guidelines and policies when applied to projects of national interest because of their scale or function, this should not be the case when applied to a villa project or any other sort of project.

The board called for further studies to be carried out when applying the methodology used whereby a residual plot is deemed acceptable for a detached bungalow and emphasised that objections by local councils and other authorities should be given more weight.

It also called for presentations made by the Planning Directorate to the Mepa board or executive committee to be factual, accurate and brief and for all DCC boards chairmen to be present at all Mepa board and executive meetings.

The board found no evidence of collusion which could necessitate police investigations.

Mepa said the full inquiry reports are being made available to the public.