Planning Authority insists no conflict of interest by Mott MacDonald

The Planning Authority is insisting that the Mott MacDonald personnel that worked on the Paceville masterplan, were totally different from the personnel who provided preliminary, high-level advisory work for the proposed Mercury Tower in St Julian’s, after the firm was accused of having a conflict of interest in its advisory role to the PA.

“The electrical and structural engineering works were carried out by Mott MacDonald prior to them being engaged by the Planning Authority and was commissioned directly to them by the international company Zaha Hadid,” the PA said in a statement, a day after the Mott MacDonald authors of the Paceville masterplan were grilled by MPs in the environment committee.

“Mott MacDonald has internal policies in place to ensure that no information is shared with any person outside the project team. This principle applies to any of their project teams and the 16000 consultants and staff who work with them. This was one of the guarantees that Mott MacDonald had given the Authority prior to them being engaged as consultants in the drawing up of the Paceville Masterplan,” the PA said.

The PA added that it compelled the consultants that “at no point were they allowed to make contact with any person, agent or architect who had a stakeholder interest in Paceville” and that anti-bribery clauses stipulated in the contract gave the PA no reason to consider that there was any conflict of interest.

The Paceville Masterplan was developed by Mott MacDonald who combined with Broadway Maylan to provide an integrated study to accommodate future development which the PA says will regenerate the Paceville area.

But the government yesterday said it was prepared to carry out a review of the work carried out by the firm hired as lead consultant for the Paceville masterplan, amid the controversy sparked in a parliamentary committee that heard Planning Authority chairman Johann Buttigieg say he knew that the firm had provided advisory services to the Mercury House developers.

UK-based Mott MacDonald had verbally informed Buttigieg about their work on engineering reports for the construction of Mercury House in Paceville, with the PA chairman telling them to proceed with their masterplan consultancy.

Planning Parliamentary Secretary Deborah Schembri told Parliament’s House Environmental and Development Planning Committee that the government had not been told about the firm’s dual roles.