Architect Ruben Abela named CEO of environment authority

Architect Ruben Abea has been announced as the first chief executive of the Environment and Resources Authority, environment minister Jose Herrera announced.

Speaking during a parliamentary debate on ERA’s first financial estimates, Herrera wished Abela luck but warned that his role as the first CEO of a “super-authority” will not be easy.

Abela, a manager at Heritage Malta, had already enjoyed a seat on ERA's board of directors, and was selected by the board as ERA CEO  following a call for applications. Herrera said that he had no role to play in his selection, after a political decision to leave the selection in the hands of the board.

During his speech, Herrera proposed the appointment of a magistrate, who will specifically be entrusted to deal with cases of breaches of environmental law.

He also said that he will contract a team of lawyers to consolidate Malta’s environment laws, and proposed that the safeguarding of the environment be enshrined as a ministerial responsibility within the Constitution.

“Just as new ministers pledge to guarantee work when they take their oaths, so too should they pledge to work in favour of the environment,” he said.

He refuted claims by shadow environment minister Marthese Portelli that people who used to work at the environment directorate within the former Malta Environment and Planning Authority (MEPA) had been overlooked for promotions, despite having been promised that they would be first in line for promotion if the need ever arose.

“They were never guaranteed that they’d be promoted, but we rather left the ERA free to make its own decisions on staff,” he said.

In her speech, Portelli warned of political discrimination within ERA, with experienced people overlooked for promotions.

“A capable person has been overlooked for a promotion, that was taken up instead by an unqualified person who used to work in MEPA’s planning department. Such manouevres are demotivating the staff.”

She added that some ERA departments are understaffed and that its chairperson and director have been left without personal assistants, after their original ones resigned and weren’t replaced.

“If not even the people who lead the authority are being given the support staff they need, let alone how this authority will be able to hire people to draft policies and conduct research.”

She urged Prime Minister Joseph Muscat not to force Herrera to adopt anti-environmental stances, noting that his predecessor Leo Brincat had been “forced” to defend development plans on virgin land at Zonqor.

Herrera briefly retorted that he would have no problem intervening if Portelli’s claims were founded, but said that he stays out of ERA’s internal decisions as a general rule.

“While I have a right to intervene in ERA’s policy decisions, I leave the nitty-gritty internal decisions on job applications up to them. To ensure it remains an autonomous authority.”