Labour MP warns against repeat of Mercaptan fiasco

During this evenings Parliamentary debate on the Crimes Against the Environment Bill Labour MP Leo Brincat questioned whether the alleged incineration of carcasses imported from North Africa is going to be a reapeat of the Merkaptan fiasco.

A board of inquiry appointed by the Minister of Finance had concluded that Enemalta did not dispose of Mercaptan gas in the proper manner when it was destroyed by fire in 2009. The operation was carried out without the necessary permits.

He said the request for a comprehensive inquiry on the alleged incineration of carcasses imported from North Africa in order to ensure that whoever carries out the investigations is not in any way compromised.

Brincat said the inquiry should not in any way be compromised in a way to cover up any wrongdoings. He added that since calling for a broad investigation, the government has remained silent on whether the inquiry board's terms of reference will be wide enough to permit it to investigate the whole process, going back to the first time such a case was brought to the authorities' attention.

The Labour MP said the inquiry board should be given a broad term of reference in the sake of accountability and transparency.

Brincat said it was positive that the government accepted to hold an inquiry but noted that the request was accepted five days after the Opposition brought the issue up. He underlined that in order to ensure that investigation is really independent the inquiry should not in any way be related to the internal investigation carried out by Mepa.

"Within a couple of hours of our press conference outside the Marsa incinerator, Mepa confirmed that an investigation is underway. However it failed to say when the investigation commenced and when it received the first reports, who filed them and what was their content."

The Opposition's environment spokesperson also asked who carried out the investigations and whether any preliminary results have emerged from the initial investigations.

"Why did this matter remain secret when it could possibly imply that there is a connection to foot-and-mouth disease? If you look closely to my statements I was consciously very cautious to avoid creating unnecessary alarm."

Brincat added that he cannot fathom why on such an important matter which is not strictly technical the minister responsible for Mepa was not made aware of the investigation from its early stages. He noted that Minister Mario de Marco was only made aware of this investigation after Labour's press conference.

He noted that normally the minister is aware of matters which are far less important and this "goes against any kind of logic and common sense on who supposedly holds the environment at heart..

The Labour MP said that he hopes all documentation related to the Mepa investigation are made available inquiry are made available to the board of inquiry. He added that hopefully this documentation does not get lost as happened in past unrelated cases.

Brincat stressed that he is only interested in uncovering the truth and said that he hopes that Mepa was not aware of any illegalities carried out by Wasteserve when it started investigating the case. He added that Mepa should also come clean on whether it was considering taking any action against Wasteserve.

In his concluding remarks, the MP expressed hope that there was no political interference in these investigations.