So FAA has full faith in MEPA auditor Joe Falzon, eh?
Published:
July 24, 2009 at 8:09pm
MEPA auditor Joe Falzon
I have received this comment – and no, it wasn’t anonymous.
“For your readers’ information, Mr. Falzon as Chairman of DCC issued hundreds of ODZ permits, including the Santa Rosa restaurant, next to JPO’s property. As an architect, he also submitted ODZ applications, including the MUSEUM building in Cirkewwa, which was recommended for refusal by the case officer.”
I must say, there are some very interesting twists to this on-going saga. FAA are in right over their heads, though this isn’t difficult given that most of them are midgets (hell is short people who want to be visible).
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Can anyone from FAA explain how we’re going to go into agritourism without ODZ developments?
ODZ developments generate lots of aggro.
The Cirkewwa MUSEUM building is quite a sight. Daphne, is it possible for you to obtain an old photo of the dilapidated building that there was before? It would be interesting to compare it with the building which currently occupies the site, the one for which Joe Falzon was the architect.
Makes me wonder what Mr. Falzon’s next moral move should be. His report was directly responsible for Dr. Scerri’s resignation as president of the Nationalist Party. Is an auditor infallible? Judging from some of the language he used in his report, one gets the feeling that he was out to get someone. I hope that FAA’s ‘full faith’ in him does not go to his head. It’s like Airbus getting an endorsement from a local kite-making club.
That photo shows a bureaucrat without a shred of self-doubt. A very dangerous quality in an auditor.
My thoughts exactly.
It appears that Mr Falzon has seen the light on his way to Damascus.
There are enough ODZs to go into Agriturismo……
I would be interested to know who granted the 5 storey permits to Tumas group, bang next door to Santa Maria Estate which (was) scheduled for bungalows, and now villas. Now that’s a terrible decision; just go see for yourselves how the lefthand side of Santa Maria Estate has been ruined big time. So we have a lot of fuss about ODZ and small hidden residences, but highly visible monstrosities like this project, or the veritable mess at Spinola which looks like Gaza, that’s fine.
Can somebody please tell who was chairing the DCC during 1996-1998? I will be much obliged for the information.
[Daphne – Joe Falzon, the current MEPA auditor.]
As sure as the river reaches the sea your guns are now turned on Joe Falzon. Thanks to this upstanding gentleman, FAA and other NGO’s the plans to ravage Xaghra il-Hamra, Ramla il-Hamra, Mistra and now Bahrija (just to mention a few) have been laid to rest.
Instead of wasting your energy on your anti AStrd/FAA crusade. There are far much more serious goings on that you launch for debate. How about the Power station tender for starters. You can also follow up with the VAT Department mega-fraud for afters.
[Daphne – I am not the opposition press. Why aren’t they following up those issues? Clearly, if they see no reason to do so….Your accusation that there are more important issues that Astrid and FAA could equally be addressed to Super One. Of course it’s not the most important issue, but it’s certainly the one people find most interesting, and in case you hadn’t noticed, I’m not in the business of boring people. Not even Malta Today can engage its readers’ attention with tedium about power stations and VAT departments. Beyond the initial scandal, people switch off. The next time they switch on again is if and when names are introduced into the story at the point of arraignment.]
There are many joe falzons who are periti. Besides the museum are philantropic organisation and not profit making. More significant, the standing building at cirkewwa is very nice and promotes good architecture which is traditional and mediterranan.
[Daphne – “There are many joe falzons who are periti”. Sigh.]
I had some admiration towards this person until last Thursday I saw him on Super One Tv answering to the usual loaded questions by the highly ethical ONE journalists: ” don’t you think that the prime minister should intervene in this Bahrija saga?” Mr Falzon commented with a smile “the prime minister is in an awkward position”.
As an auditor he should have veered away from commenting publicly on this matter; he is not a prima donna. He should write well-researched reports, and not comment off the cuff before a TV camera about how the PM should feel. I’m sure that Dun Gorg Preca wouldn’t have condoned this kind of unethical attitude from one of his followers.
“The Prime Minister is in an awkward position.” How so? The Prime Minister’s role is clear – he should not interfere in the decisions of public institutions, however he may feel about them personally. People who thought he should in the Bahrija case would feel very differently were he to butt in in order to make sure a permit is issued rather than withdrawn.
Thank you for the information on who was chairing the DCC in 1996-1998.
In this context I would like to mention that under the DCC of that time, just before the election of September 1998, a permit was issued in Wied Ghomor for the construction of a block of apartments extending between Triq Il-Mediterrran and Triq Il-Baltiku, complete with basement garages, when the area was designated a villa area.
We, the residents, appealed, but in the first instance our appeal was thrown out on a technicality. Needless to mention the bad treatment we received during the hearing – whilst the developers were being treated with sandwiches and coffee in between hearings of other appeals, I was nearly arrested had it not been for the lawyer and architect who were accompanying me.
Eventually we won the right for a hearing through the court of appeal but, eventually lost at the appeals board. Meantime the developers rushed into completing and marketing the development.
Thank you for the information of who was chairing the DCC in 1996-1998.
In this context I would like to mention, that under the DCC of that time, just before the election of September 2008, a permit was issued in Wied Ghomor for the construction of a block of apartments on three levels with basement garages, standing between Triq Il-Mediterrran and Triq Il-Baltiku. Since, a number of these garages are being used commercially. This permit was issued in an area, which was designated villa area. We, the residents, appealed, but in the first instance our appeal was thrown out on a technicality. Needless to mention the bad treatment we received during the hearing – whilst the developers were being treated with sandwiches and coffee in between hearings of other appeals, I was nearly arrested had it not been for the lawyer and architect who were accompanying me. Eventually we won the right for a hearing through the court of appeal but lost again at the appeals board. Whilst the appeal in court was ongoing, the developers rushed into completing and marketing the development.
There were many questionable permits approved under Joe Falzon’s DCC chairmanship between 1996-1998, and not just the ones mentioned here.
Let’s take a look at the Cirkewwa MUSEUM building, something the Nazis might have built: a concrete blockhouse, complete with surrounding chain-link fence that is designed to keep people in, not out. It’s a glaring eyesore in the middle of garigue land. Even the 19th-century boathouses in front of it look better than this. If there is a permit that never had to be issued, this was it. But it was for Tal-Muzew. These are capital lads, taking care of our children’s moral education. Never mind, the disturbing but hushed up rumours you hear about them. What drives a bunch of celibate young men, in denial of the rampaging hormones that course through their body, to hold sleep-overs for boys with similarly charged blood? So in comes their in-house architect, who also happens to be the chairman of the DCC, and who is now the MEPA auditor. And hey presto.
Then there’s that famous restaurant/nightclub/recording studio complex in Mistra. Interestingly, this is immediately adjacent to Pullicino Orlando’s land. Joe Falzon, as DCC chairman, approved the development, but this same man, as auditor, condemned Pullicino Orlando’s application.
But what is most interesting is the time he spent actually working as MEPA’s in-house auditor. His assistant was none other than Mr Beetling Eyebrows, the one who is now something in AD and who also happens to have an approved farmhouse conversion within shouting distance of the unfortunate Victor Scerri.
There is an independent board at the MEPA which is there to examine the workings of the organisation. This is the MEPA Users’ Committee. This board had recommended the appointment of a full-time auditor with support staff. It was a good move, but the choice of auditor was a bad one.
The auditor morphed into a modern day Torquemada. He would investigate, and if someone or something dared object, he would mysteriously find his name in the newspapers and his character assassinated. The auditor restricted access to the very same files the User’s Committee used to examine and give recommendations on. At one point he point-blank denied further access.
One of the few things the previous chairman, who I have no time for because he was similarly flawed, had done was to have him thrown out and refuse to reemploy his sidekick. This caused all sorts of problems, with our Robin Hood regularly going in front of the cameras and playing the martyr, until the Ombudsman placed him under his wing.
And there he remains. Now, if you think this man is suited to be auditor, please raise your hands. The FAA are welcome to have him. He can become thir spiritual director for all I care.
I sympathise with Mario Debono’s anger and would like to add another dimension to what he says. In 2006/7, there were various interviews and features on Cacopardo and Falzon in the newspapers. The eagerness of these two gentlemen to make the news and depict themselves as modern-day heroes should have rung many alarm bells.
It is certainly not within the remit of an investigating officer, who remains an employee of the organisation even if only part-time or on contract, to communicate with the media details connected with his work. If a MEPA employee speaks to the media about his work, he should have to face the music and rightly so.
As for the auditor, it is acceptable to use the media to send a message but this should be done with prudence and in a manner which would not allow others with an agenda to use and abuse his statements. Joe Falzon should ask for some advice from the Ombudsman on the correct way to deal with the media.
Names were dragged in the mud, if not by Cacopardo and Falzon themselves, then by people who took the cue from them. In all of this, the Chamber of Architects remained silent, oblivious to the dangers that the erratic behaviour of these two gentlemen posed to the architects on the DCC, MEPA and Appeals boards as well as to architects in private practice – quite apart from the dangers to other persons, namely board members and applicants.
The auditor’s allegation of suspected collusion between applicants and members of the DCC is a case in point. The least an architect might expect from the organisation which represent his or her profession is a minimum level of protection from thee sorts of unsubstantiated allegations.
In spite of the sensationalism in the auditor’s reports and the mud-slinging of FAA and others, the Chamber of Architects has remained silent.
If even people of some intelligence are unable to see the dangers of the peculiar behaviour of Falzon and Cacopardo, then Malta has some serious problems.
Given some of the permits issued when Joe Falzon himself was chairman of the DCC Board, I find his verbal flogging of the more recent DCC members a bit rich, to say the least. He, of all people, should know that the case of the Bahrija permit was nowhere near as straightforward or clear-cut as the puerile reports in the media make it out to be and certainly not as simple as the hysterical clamouring of the FAA bunch tries to make it seem.
@ xdcc2:
http://www.dinlarthelwa.org/content/view/122/71/
&
pg 7-8 – http://www.ktpmalta.com/publications/ta/tA044.pdf
Thank you, S. Vella. Granted. In this article, Chamber of Architects took a stand against the mud slinging of Martin Scicluna. Scicluna had alleged wrong-doing just because there were some DCC board members doing some private work. He did not substantiate his allegations.
In my previous comment, referring to Falzon and Cacopardo I stated “The eagerness of these two gentlemen to make the news and depict themselves as modern-day heroes should have rung many alarm bells.”
I also referred to the “the dangers that the erratic behaviour of these two gentlemen posed to the architects on the DCC, MEPA and Appeals boards as well as to architects in private practice – quite apart from the dangers to other persons, namely board members and applicants.”
When and where did the Chamber of Architects express concern about this?