The chairman of the tribunal tasked with scrutinising complaints against Planning Authority decisions is a Planning Authority employee, Times of Malta has learnt.
This is the second time that the tribunal, which was established in 2013 to independently hear appeals against PA decisions, has been chaired by an authority employee out on unpaid leave.
A freedom of information request shows Environment and Planning Review Tribunal (EPRT) chairman Joe Borg asked to take the unpaid leave from the PA for the five-year duration of his term on the independent adjudicator.
The agreement gives him the security of being able to return to the PA within the same grade once his term of judging its decisions is up.
According to the law establishing the tribunal, the appeals body is supposed to be an ‘independent and impartial tribunal’ whose remit is to preside over appeals filed against decisions taken by the PA and the Environment Resources Authority.
The freedom of information request shows Borg received formal approval for his request for unpaid leave in April.
“As discussed and agreed on 20 March 2020, following my appointment as Chairman of the Environment and Planning Review Tribunal, I would like to formalise my the [sic] unpaid leave agreement from the Planning Authority for the duration of my appointment (5 years ending on 12th February 2025). The last day I reported for work at the PA was on 21st February 2020,” the e-mail states.
The request was approved “by PA management” in a subsequent e-mail.
Borg’s predecessor Martin Saliba, who is now executive chairman of the PA, had reached a similar agreement.
Environmental activist Arnold Cassola, who filed the freedom of information request, slammed the “flouting of rules and regulations”.
“They do not even learn from past ‘mistakes’. In 2013, Martin Saliba became the arbiter in cases involving residents and local councils against his own employer, the Planning Authority.
“Now seven years later, another PA employee Joe Borg, is appointed to the same EPRT position, which is supposed to be an ‘independent and impartial’ one,” Cassola said. Borg did not respond to multiple requests for comments by Times of Malta.
Environmental NGOs said in September that they were discussing potential legal avenues to revoke appeals against PA permits that were rejected when Saliba chaired the EPRT.
Lawyer Claire Bonello had slammed Saliba for never declaring this “glaring conflict of interest” while chairing the EPRT.