In a matter of a few days, two separate courts concluded that the government or one of its entities had acted unlawfully in two separate cases.
In both, the courts found egregious breaches by authorities whose very remit is to draft, uphold and enforce the law.
Last week, a judge ruled that the Planning Authority had illegally granted permission for the former Sea Malta building at the Marsa waterfront to be demolished. Also known as the ex-NAAFI premises, the building was described as a fine example of modernist architecture by Kamra tal-Periti, which mounted a legal challenge alongside NGOs Din l-Art Ħelwa and Flimkien Għal Ambjent Aħjar. They won the case.
During the proceedings, it emerged that not only had the PA ignored a legal provision that lays down the need for a detailed site inspection by an independent architect but testimony by its then-CEO, Johann Buttigieg appeared to confirm it did so as a matter of practice.
What’s more, this was not a mere oversight, or a failing, caused by an individual shortcoming. The planning ombudsman had informed the PA that it was breaking the law. Instead of acknowledging that, the PA’s executive council ordered the demolition to go ahead. Enemalta, the owners, duly obliged. What’s left standing is only the road-facing section of the building. The rest has been destroyed.
Another court decision this week declared as null and void a government deal to hand over management of Miżieb and Aħrax woodlands to the hunters’ federation, FKNK. The court’s reasoning cut directly through the government’s modus operandi. The guardianship deal was “null from the start” precisely because it was done in a secretive manner, with no public consultation, parliamentary oversight or media analysis, the court ruled.
And while Robert Abela can justifiably wash his hands of the Sea Malta debacle as it happened before his time in power, he has no such justification in the FKNK agreement. It was Ian Borg’s ministry that piloted the process and Abela himself who presented the proposal to cabinet, back in April 2020.
Abela and his government could have chosen to go through all the proper channels. They could have presented the proposal to parliament, opened it up to public debate and, after consultation and modification, issued a public deed. Instead, they kept the plans secret and buried them in silence for six months.
When Times of Malta revealed that the agreement would be signed at a ceremony in early October, the government panicked, moved the signing date forward and wrapped up the deal behind closed doors.
“The institutions are working,” Abela likes to repeat... sometimes villainously, as the demolition of the Sea Malta building and the secretive woodlands deal have shown. The government must now pay more than lip service to the prime minister’s mantra. It must acknowledge these mistakes – both of them wilful – and make amends.
First, an apology is due to the people who were deprived of heritage in one case and enjoyment of countryside in the other. But that’s not enough.
As demanded by the representatives of Kamra and the two NGOs behind the Sea Malta building challenge, the only way Enemalta can redeem itself is to entrust the building to the community for proper care and for the government to censure the PA officers involved.
On the woodlands deal, the government has weakly “taken note” of the judgment. But the NGOs that instituted that particular court action rightly want more than that: in the same vein, the areas should now be returned to the people and be declared public all year round.