A coalition of NGOs is calling for a "full-scale investigation" into the practices that saw the appointment of a planning authority employee as chair of the Environment and Planning Review Tribunal.
On Sunday, Times of Malta revealed that the ‘independent’ tribunal tasked with hearing appeals against decisions taken by the PA, was chaired by Martin Saliba, an employee of the same authority.
Saliba had reached an agreement with the PA in 2013 that allowed him to stay on as an employee with the authority on unpaid leave.
He had been appointed by then prime minister Joseph Muscat and chaired the tribunal until November 2019. He returned to the PA as its executive chairman following a public call, replacing Johann Buttigieg.
This was "blatant and unprecedented conflict of interest", according to the NGOs.
They added that while Saliba had decided on several appeals, "including those of the ITS-DB project, the Mrieħel quad towers and the Central Link Project, not once did he disclose the fact that he was a PA employee. This means that he could have never met the requirements needed to qualify as an impartial or independent adjudicator in line with the demands of his role, since he was bound to his employer.”
As a consequence, the appellants who appeared before Saliba may have never been given a fair hearing, the NGOs added in a statement sent on Tuesday.
"This also means that residents and NGOs who have been crowdfunding various appeals across the island may have been investing their human, financial and professional resources in a system that is rigged against them."
Additionally, the NGOs are urging for an audit of all the appeals that Saliba decided upon and full disclosure of all his agreements with the PA. The group is asking whether the current tribunal's chair is also an employee of the PA.
"Saliba’s appointment as head of the tribunal is a gross miscarriage of justice in planning, which raises the spectre that the PA may have been judging appeals against itself and denying citizens recourse to an impartial hearing," they said.
The coalition of NGOs is made up of the Attard Residents Environmental Network, Azzjoni: Tuna Artna Lura, Bicycle Advocacy Group, BirdLife Malta, Din l-Art Ħelwa, Extinction Rebellion Malta, Flimkien għal Ambjent Aħjar, Friends of the Earth (Malta), MaYA Foundation, Moviment Graffitti, Nature Trust Malta, Ramblers' Association of Malta and the Archaeological Society Malta.