PN accuses environment minister of ‘deceit’

The Nationalist Party accused environment minister Leo Brincat of hiding behind a number of reports instead of coming clean over the real reasons behind the closure of the Marsascala Family Park.

The report by the OPM's management efficiency unit (MEU) on the Marsascala family park revealed how an expedient procurement was carried out urgently, and perhaps in time for a pre-electoral show of strength.

The MEU was instructed by environment minister Leo Brincat to compile a technical report on the €7 million Family Park in Marsascala, which the government claims is blighted by administrative and infrastructural problems.

The park, managed by national waste agency WasteServ, is estimated to have cost around €8 million, with actual contracts awarded amounting to €6,920,000 and €890,000 in direct orders. These contract variations and made up around 40% of the actual expenditure incurred to-date.

The park was temporarily closed earlier this month,  following the conclusions of a report drawn up by experts which said that the park should be declared "out of bounds" because of a fault in the adjacent Sant' Antnin recycling plant. A hydroliser tank, used to clean the biogas produced from treating household waste from hydrogen sulphide before this passes into the electricity generating unit, was damaged

The MEU concluded that the development of the Sant' Antnin Family Park was "excessively reliant on the process of variations and direct orders to such a degree that this can only be explained by lack of foresight and adequate planning."

However, the Opposition said that the report was "neither factual nor updated" and hit out at the minister's claims that the PARKS department was only instructed to manage the park weeks before the inauguration of the park in February.

"PARKS department employees helped in the building of rubble walls, were involved with discussions with Inspire Foundation over the park's management as early as November 2012 and and the department set up a site office in Marsascala well before the park's inauguration," the PN said.

While failing to react to the MEU's conclusions on the "unjustified" direct orders, the Opposition accused the environment minister of a lack of understanding on how EU funding works.

The report pointed out that a €200,000 direct order for planting and maintenance of trees was issued when the government's own PARKS department was not even approached to deliver this work. "Government could have procured the trees and their planting at a cheaper rate had supply and maintenance deliverables been kept separate, and even cheaper had maintenance been kept in house."

However, the PN said that the minister should "stop acting as if he was in Opposition" and understand that the project would not have been eligible to EU funds had the government purchased the trees from its own PARKS department.

"If the project was under Brincat's watch the country would have lost the EU funding," the PN said, adding that "when Brincat is faced by a problem, he hides behind reports instead of shouldering his responsibilities."

The PN also called on Brincat to explain when the park will be re-opened and why it took so long to close the park since the faults were discovered in May.