MEPA financial accounts for 2011 still being finalised

The Malta Environment and Planning Authority's financial audit report for 2011 is being finalised and will be presented upon completion, a spokesperson for Minister Mario de Marco confirmed.

But while the financial audit is still in pipeline, MEPA's annual report of 2011 has been finalised and will be presented to the MEPA board "in the coming days".

According to law, both the annual report and the financial statements have to be presented by the end of the year. Traditionally, both reports are tabled in parliament before the summer recess. 

With the government is risking losing the budget vote in mid-November, there is a concrete risk that the financial report will not be published before parliament is dissolved, even if the budget would include financial estimates which include the surplus or deficit made by MEPA. 

The financial statements are expected to shed light on MEPA's true financial state, four years after the government embarked on its reform.

MEPA's latest financial estimates for 2010 showed the government spending €7.7 million to finance the gap in MEPA's accounts.

This amount was even higher than the €7 million subvention granted to MEPA in 2010, which still left the authority with a €2 million deficit.

The government originally planned to turn MEPA in to a self-sustaining authority, but later changed tack, replacing the blanket subvention by starting to pay MEPA for services rendered to government. MEPA has been promising that the publication of the reports was imminent since April. In April, a MEPA spokesperson replied that the reports were still being compiled to were to be published "in the coming weeks".

On 7 July, when asked why the report had still not been published, a MEPA spokesperson replied that the "report was being finalised".

When reminded that since parliament is adjourned and both the annual report and financial report have to be tabled in parliament it is unlikely that the report will see the light of the day at least by October, the MEPA spokesperson replied that "the annual report will be published in the coming weeks and will be forwarded to the minister to table in parliament".

Now, MEPA has confirmed that while the annual report has been finalised and is awaiting the MEPA board's approval, the audited financial statements are still being finalised.

For the past three years, the reports were always published before June. Prior to the MEPA reform in 2008, the annual report was regularly published at the end of each financial year in November.

The reports can only be published after being tabled in parliament. But no such report was tabled before parliament's summer recess.

Over the past few years, the annual report was always in the news thanks to the publication of comments by MEPA auditor Joseph Falzon, who provides a summary of the cases he dealt with during the previous year.

Falzon confirmed with this newspaper that he had sent his report, which is always included in the annual report before the end of last year.

During 2011, the MEPA auditor investigated a number of interesting cases - including that of the appointment of MEPA CEO Ian Stafrace.