The chairman of Flimkien Ghal Ambjent Ahjar and Dock No. 1

Hmmmm, no wonder FAA kept its loud mouth shut about the rehabilitation of Dock No. 1. The applicant for its rehabilitation and redevelopment is FAA chairman Paul Cardona.

Astrid Vella was plastered all over Malta Today yesterday, telling us why environmental impact assessments are totally wrong and “flawed” – a catchword taken straight from AD activist Claire Bonello – because they are paid for by the developers (as opposed to the already over-burdened taxpayer, one imagines).

Let’s see whether she’s going to keep a zip on it when it comes to the environmental impact assessment for Dock No. 1. Presumably, it won’t be “flawed”.

These are the details I have found so far through a quick search on the internet. There have recently been changes in the plans for Dock No. 1, so I’ll have to flip through some more stuff tomorrow. Until then, the following is of enough interest. Paul Cardona, in a strategic letter to The Sunday Times yesterday, attempted to preempt the inevitable by claiming that FAA never objects to projects that involve the rehabilitation of run-down areas, without telling his readers that he is involved in one such project himself. Astrid Vella repeated this same justification in Malta Today and all over timesofmalta.com.

Ghandhom wicchom u x’imkien iehor l-istess.

Planning Applications Case Details
Case No. 08201/06
Location of development: No. 1, Dock Area, Misrah Gavino Gulia, Cospicua (Bormal)

Description of works: Outline application for the rehabilitation and redevelopment of the dock area Bormla, to include residential and mixed use facilities, landscaping, restoration of existing buildings and yacht-berthing facilities.

Applicant: Mr Paul Cardona

Reception date: Wednesday, December 27, 2006

Over the past week, I and others have raised the possibility of a dangerous situation in which major projects are sabotaged before they reach the planning assessment stage, by a combination of screeching by Flimkien Ghal Ambjent Ahjar, stroppy Nationalist MPs and Joseph Muscat’s opportunism. It didn’t occur to me at the time – well, it did, but I didn’t think these people would be so brass-necked – that one simple expedient would avoid all this: the strategic placement of the FAA chairman or an FAA committee member on the consortium board, or better still, having this person as the named applicant.

I also raised the very real risk of corruption, which becomes immediately obvious in a situation such as this: you grease my palm and I’ll shut up. You put me on the job, and I’ll ensure that you get no trouble from Flimkien Ghal Ambjent Ahjar. I underscore most vehemently that this is not an insinuation that any present FAA committee member or its chairman is corrupt. I merely point out that others who replace them may be unable to resist, and that even with the current incumbents, ‘the people’ whom FAA say they champion should not be forced into taking things on trust. We never thought a chief justice would take cash in brown envelopes, did we? Well, there you go.

This is not to say that Paul Cardona is not a reputable marine engineer, or that he was selected for reasons other than his professional repute, expertise and track record. But it does make it very difficult for Flimkien Ghal Ambjent Ahjar to scrutinise a project, to criticise it, and if need be, to sabotage it, if their chairman is also the applicant.

Mrs Vella, in her interview, claimed that professionals who work on environmental impact assessments are compromised by the fact that they are paid by the developers. She didn’t use the word ‘compromised’, because unless she is dumbing down her language to communicate with ‘the people’ her language skills are not even that sophisticated. But compromised is what she meant, and ‘prejudices their impartiality’ is what she said.

Now I am forced to wonder out loud whether Paul Cardona’s involvement in the rehabilitation of Dock No. 1 ‘prejudices his impartiality’ when it comes to scrutinising the project as chairman of Flimkien Ghal Ambjent Ahjar.

X’pajjiz tal-Mickey Mouse. And these are the very same people who are hurling insults around, claiming that ‘others’ are not in a position to speak because ‘they’ have worked for developers. Well, at least ‘they’ are not budding developers themselves, unlike Mr Cardona. Il-vera tad-dahk.