‘I never asked MEPA board to stop Ghallis project’ – parliamentary secretary

Parliamentary secretary Michael Farrugia once again defended his position after former Nationalist minister George Pullicino accused him of having blocked a proposed waste treatment plant project in the Ghallis waste treatment facility.

Addressing parliament this evening, Farrugia also asked how Pullicino came to be in possession of the minutes of the informal meeting held by the MEPA board, when an informal meeting means that its minutes cannot be made available to the public.

"In informal meetings, neither the public nor the applicant is present and the minutes are not available to the general public. Moreover, those minutes were never approved in the following meeting," Farrugia said.

The parliamentary secretary explained that all he had done was ask the MEPA chairman who come the board met for the first time after the elections, but without having "the decency" of asking the person politically responsible of MEPA to be present.

Farrugia said he had asked the board to wait until its new formation was confirmed before going on with its work. "At no point did I say that any projects should be blocked. And if the chairman failed to deliver the message well, it doesn't mean I said so," he insisted.

He added that even if the election hadn't resulted in a change of government, the board should have first held a meeting with the person responsible of MEPA.

While saying he will not be carrying out a witch-hunt, Farrugia questioned who had passed on the minutes of the informal meeting to Pullicino.

In other sections of his speech, Farrugia said government will be in the coming weeks issuing a call for tenders for land reclamation projects.