The speediest permit ever in the history of the MEPA: 24 hours for Joseph Muscat's
'Trust me. I'm a used-car salesman.'
Is this the most speedily approved development permit ever in the history of the MEPA?
The year was 1998.
The applicant was a Super One reporter called Joseph Muscat, widely known to be the court favourite of Labour leader Alfred Sant, who was then prime minister.
The ‘sponsoring architect’ was Alfred Grech, a partner in the architectural practice of Charles Buhagiar, who was then cabinet minister responsible for works.
Muscat’s application was for the construction of a marital nest. He was betrothed at the time to a young lady called Michelle, an assistant and public relations adviser to the prime minister.
The DCC approved Muscat’s application before the end of the mandatory period during which objections can be made, and within 24 hours of receiving it.
I’m not saying that there was corruption here, or a bending of the rules to suit the prime minister’s pet, who was marrying the prime minister’s assistant.
I’m just saying that some people might not believe that the DCC got its dates mixed up and that’s why it approved the permit before the mandatory period for objections was up.
I’m not one of them, of course. I know that calculators can be so unreliable, and that the Labour Party’s computers malfunction from time to time.
PA00362/98 – applicant Joseph Muscat
Location of development: 52, Triq San Pawl Milqi, Burmarrad
Description of works: To demolish existing building and construction of a store at basement level, ground floor terraced house and swimming pool. First floor maisonette and overlying washrooms.
Reception date: 22/01/98
Validated: 22/01/98
Target date: 16/04/98
Representations expiry period: 02/03/98
DPA report recommending approval: 26/02/98
Approved by DCC: 27/02/98.
Isn’t that amazing? The whole process took five weeks, but the DCC itself approved that application within 24 hours. The file with the case officer’s report reached them on 26 February and the next day the permit was issued.
“Aw, Guz, wasal il-fajl tal-kokkolino tal-prim. Nahseb ahjar nhallu kollox minn idejna u nahdmu.”
I won’t go into another aspect I find equally amazing, because it’s really none of our business unless he was dealing coke on the side: that a 24-year-old Super One reporter and student put in a permit application for the building of two maisonettes with a swimming-pool, a store and – ahem – overlying washrooms. There are advantages to being the only child of doting older parents, and maybe mummy and daddy shelled out – which is why Michelle’s name is not on the application,.
Now where does this leave Astrid Vella and her FAA?
Are they going to do the principled thing and challenge the Labour leader about The Strange Case of The Bent Rules? We, The People, demand an explanation.
Or is Astrid going to carry on allowing Muscat to use her so that she can carry on using him, as with the case of the cathedral museum, when they were photographed kissing each other to celebrate a job well done, outside the palace?
Like hell is Astrid going to take Muscat up on this one.
Instead, she’s going to ring round her toy soldiers and get them to launch preemptive strikes with their rubber weapons. She wasn’t an environmental activist in 1998. Flimkien Ghal Ambjent Ahjar was set up in 2006. Muscat was a Super One reporter and not the Labour leader when the rules were bent in the approval of his application. And so on.
But here is what Astrid should be doing instead.
She should be challenging the MEPA auditor to investigate this case. After all, this is the future prime minister we are talking about, and if he pulled strings to bend the rules in his favour when he was the prime minister’s court favourite, who knows what he might do as prime minister?
I can just imagine the megaphones and the banners and the people dragged off Teeny Beach to protest had she discovered the same facts about Lawrence Gonzi.
Astrid should get busy challenging Joseph Muscat himself for an explanation, and demanding to know of Alfred Sant whether he was aware of the machinations that led to his court favourite’s planning application being approved in breach of the rules and within 24 hours of the file landing on the DCC desk. After all, he spent rather a lot of time telling us back then about corruption and hbieb tal-hbieb and barunijiet.
And then she should ask Jeffrey Pullicino Orlando how he feels about finding out that the roof over the Labour leader’s head is the result of undue influence wielded in favour of the prime minister’s court favourite.
Either that, or the people at the DCC can’t count, even if they put all their fingers and toes together and use them as an abacus. And when that file landed on their desk, it must have been a really slow day – slow enough for them to get it out within 24 hours.
No wonder Joseph Muscat has been silent on the matter of Pullicino Orlando, even though his predecessor raised hell about it. It isn’t just because he’s hoping to keep him sweet and his loyalties divided. It’s also because he’s got a little bit of a skeleton in his own cupboard, and now it’s out and jangling.
Dear God, who can you trust these days, eh?
So now you know. If you want your development permit within five weeks of submitting your application, and within 24 hours of the file reaching the DCC, don’t go to Robert Musumeci, whose stuff takes years to go through.
Go to Joseph Muscat. If he can work the system so effectively as the prime minister’s favourite, just imagine what he can do as prime minister. The way things are going, he can keep the rubber-stamp on his desk while we all form an orderly queue.
No wonder he’s keeping silent on the proposed reforms at the MEPA. They’re going to allow him lots of leeway to do as he pleases. Silence from the leader of the opposition on matters as crucial as this can be read in one way only: ominous.
26 Comments Comment
Leave a Comment
Ah, Daph, but the representation period must have been shortened because it must have been a special case, though why I would not know.
[Daphne – Let’s get Astrid to ask, shall we? “Ma nifilhux izjed! The people demand to know why the prime minister’s court favourite was a special case!”]
“Date Published in Newspapers: 15 February 1998
Representation Expiry Date: 02 March 1998
The period for Representations is 15 days. However the Authority reserves the right to reduce the representation period FOR SPECIAL CASES.” (My capital letters)
( http://www.mepa.org.mt/ – Permit application search on case number 00362 of 98)
Regardless of whether or not there was undue influence here, as a matter of correction I would like to point out that the representation period here was actually of 15 days.
This point in no way diminishes the need to have a serious clarification on how the permit was approved in such a short period of time.
I have to be clear here that a permit cannot be approved before the closing date of submissions. I know of cases where objections have been lodged on the last working day.
This is the crux of the issue: no one can or should assume that objections won’t be lodged even on the last permissible day.. especially not case officers or the directorate of planning which prepares the DPA report for the DCC.
Unless there is a mistake on the MEPA website – which is possible but frankly doubtful – the case warrants, as a minimum, a clear explanation.
“Or is Astrid going to carry on allowing Muscat to use her so that she can carry on using him, as with the case of the cathedral museum, when they were photographed kissing each other to celebrate a job well done, outside the palace?”
Finally! I was wondering when we would get to the real reason for this crusade.
[Daphne – Excuse me? One late-night whisky too many, perhaps? The people on crusades are the ones hectoring us through megaphones and on Super One, organising protests and demos and raising funds for their ’cause’. You appear to believe that Astrid’s doing her job and I’m on a crusade. I don’t think so, honey. It’s actually the other way round. I see it as my duty and obligation to sit on that little twerp from time to time. Men are reluctant to do so lest they seem lacking in chivalry – because Astrid, unlike me, is not cast in the role of honorary man (a role which has more advantages than it has disadvantages, I must add). And this place isn’t exactly teeming with women politicians and women columnists, who are precisely the ones best placed to put a rocket under squeaky Miss Muffet.]
Daphne on a crusade against a Labour leader? Ma tarax…
Funny how you start off by saying “I’m not saying that there was corruption here, or a bending of the rules to suit the prime minister’s pet, who was marrying the prime minister’s assistant.” and then you manage to write such a long article full of insinuations of undue pressure, without a shred of evidence.
[Daphne – I was being sardonic, forgetting that a certain kind of Maltese mind is literal. Not a shred of evidence? There’s a file. The facts are what they are: Muscat submitted his application. Within five weeks it was on the DCC’s desk. Within 24 hours, the DCC approved it – even before the period for registering objections was up. At the time, his political sponsor and master was prime minister and his architect was in partnership with the minister of works. These facts may be unrelated, and Muscat – aged 24 – might have been rather more successful at pushing things through that Robert Musumeci or Jeffrey Pullicino Orlando. But then again, those facts may not be unrelated, and there is just one reason why the DCC approved his permit in 24 hours. Either way, we should be told: he is the next prime minister and we have to know whether he is the sort of person who cheats the system in his favour.]
This contrasts sharply to what you had to say about the JPO case, where, I might add, the evidence was much clearer, soon after the election. Remember? “This matter is between JPO and his constituents” or something along those lines?
[Daphne – Exactly. If Muscat were an MP elected by constituents, I would say the same thing. But he is not. No one elected him. He is the leader of the opposition and asking us to make him prime minister. The situation is entirely different and for your own sake you have to try and understand this instead of attempting to justify the unjustifiable.]
I’m not saying there was no bending of the rules here, just that there’s no evidence of that yet. Until you provide them, please respect our intelligence and hold back on the venom.
[Daphne – Venom…how tiresome you people are. When confronted with potentially disturbing facts, you panic and lash out. Let me suggest an experiment: submit an application for the demolition of a house and its replacement with two maisonettes, a store, ‘washrooms’ and a swimming-pool, and see whether you’ll get your permit in five weeks, or in 24 hours after it reaches the DCC. Then we’ll talk.]
So it IS personal. (not that we needed to be told).
[Daphne – Bit of a loser, aren’t you? It looks like you’re the one with a personal grudge, and what’s worse is that you don’t even have the balls to show your face. I didn’t know they made closets for spiteful little tossers as well as homosexuals. Now toddle off and play with yourself – but don’t forget to grab hold of your Joseph photos first.]
http://www.maltastar.com/pages/ms09dart.asp?a=3204
Aren’t most restaurants full or almost full, even the more expensive ones? The ones that don’t get the business might try tackling their menus, or service, or smarten the place up a bit.
The fact remains that if there is one thing that most Maltese people will not give up on, it’s their regular meals out, especially during the summer months, when most places are packed solid, often with people claiming to live around the poverty line.
erm….
http://www.maltatoday.com.mt/2009/07/19/interview.html
Michael Zammit Tabona has voted Labour for years. He is an ardent and open supporter of the Labour Party, has excellent contacts with Super One and Malta Today (the only newspaper in which he advertises his wares in Malta) and even invited Glenn Bedingfield to his daughter’s wedding. Last year, like Jason Micallef, he took it for granted that Labour had won the general election even before the results were out. He was at the Labour Party club up the street from his house in Naxxar on Sunday morning, wearing a red top and celebrating along with the rest of them – and then they all went back home in dismay.
The fact that he despises the prime minister and his government did not stop him inviting the prime minister and Mario de Marco to open the new luxury floor of his spa hotel in May – and he didn’t say that it was the worst of times, but rather the opposite.
Michael Zammit Tabona’s family has been in the hotel business since the 1960s at least. If this is his definition of the worst of times, then his memory is short indeed.
The whole process took a month but the DCC itself approved it within 24 hours. The file with the case officer’s report reached them on 26 February and the next day the permit was issued.
What you have not stated is that the site is not an ODZ. And if the permit is revoked there is a way to get permit back. So after all there is no big deal if Dr muscat loses the permit. Musumeci already found the recipe despite the directorate being against him!
[Daphne – That will be the day: when Astrid Vella leads her bunch of Tower Road w****rs behind a megaphone to stand outside Joseph Muscat’s house in Burmarrad and agitate until the MEPA auditor investigates the case and the permit is revoked for irregularities. Those are the hbieb tal-hbieb you should be talking about.]
Daphne…a quick Google search for a 1998 calendar might be an explanation….the 2nd of March being a Monday…..and the 28 Feb/01 Mar Sat and Sunday, it was approved on the last business day. They could have waited a bit….don’t know the hurry.
[Daphne – The last business day for the registering of objections was Monday 2 March, not Friday 27 February. A closing date is a closing date and a rule is a rule. There can’t have been any particular rush; as you said they could have waited a bit. But that’s precisely what is worrying: the belief that it’s OK to bend the rules.]
Amanda, I agree with you. Going around to decent restaurants especially on weekends, it looks like everyone is busy. I was sharing this with an auditor friend last week. He told me that the revenue generated from over 150 outlets he surveyed (not only restaurants) took a dip of between 26-33%. The worrying bit was that he said this happened last May, and the amount matches the loss of VAT receipts the government is claiming.
You cannot make a silk purse out of a sow’s ear – and you cannot make an issue out of this non-event. No matter how hard you try.
[Daphne – Hmmmm.]
A few interesting Planning Applications from 1998.
PA/00355/98 application validated on 18 March 1998, application approved 30 March 1998.
PA/00365/98 cleared and approved in one month
PA/00368/98 cleared in two months
PA/00369/98 cleared in less than two months
In all the above indicated cases, the DPA report was sent to DCC and approved by DCC on the same day.
And the list is not exhaustive but is a small representative sample…just go to the MEPA website and randomly input a valid application number for 1998. Makes very interesting reading. Perhaps MEPA was a tad more efficient and less bureaucratic at the time. Incidentally, no particularly famous citizens are involved in the above listed applications.
Daphne, whoever was responsible for fishing out the data used for this contribution was not very thorough I’m afraid. When you examine data to identify exceptions (hoping to make a scoop), you should perhaps look at a much bigger sample before drawing all the wrong conclusions.
[Daphne – The fact that a citizen ‘isn’t famous’ does not mean that no strings were pulled. Having lived through the 1970s and 1980s, I know better than to think that.]
Min jaf kemm ghorokt idejk meta qalulek b’din l-informazzjoni. Sorry to burst your bubble but there is nothing extraordinary in what you wrote. It was the norm in 1998 for permits to be issued within one to two months and most applications were approved on the same day the DPA report was sent to DCC.
[Daphne – Really.]
Joseph Falzon is well known for his efficacy and efficiency in getting things done on time.
So according to you, no strings have been pulled in the post Mintoff and KMB era. Really?
[Daphne – Yes, of course strings have been pulled in the post Mintoff and KMB era. We’re discussing one such possible case here, aren’t we?]
Pierre, I have checked a number of applications, as you said, and the picture that emerges is of extreme differences in processing times. The construction of a villa (00365/98) took one month to be processed and that of classrooms in a government school two months (0368/98) but then the replacement of a canopy took all of two months (0369/98) and a simple shop sign more than three months (00366/98). As you can see from the numbers, all these applications refer to the early months of 1998 and were validated within days of each other. Such inconsistencies can however be found in other periods of 1997-1998 as well.
Joseph Muscat’s application for demolition and construction of a medium site took a month to be approved, having been validated on 22 January. The next day, somebody else validated an application for the installation of an antenna dish but this time it took 6 months to be processed and eventually refused (0364/98).
I won’t adopt the FAA method and make nasty allegations but you will admit that the situation was not as limpid as you suggest; calling it confusing would be a euphemism. You should have followed your own advice and looked at a bigger sample.
My point was that Joseph Muscat’s application was not an exception; you seem to agree with this. Before reaching the kind of conclusions put forward by Daphne, it would have been better had she seen the bigger picture. Probably, straightforward applications are indeed processed rapidly. An application for a dish antenna can be tricky due to its visual impact.
[Daphne – Because of course, a dish on the roof has more visual impact than the whole house on which it sits, I imagine.]
Victor Scerri’s application was no exception either but both FAA and the MEPA auditor seem to have singled him out for pillorying.
Incidentally, it is not true what Astrid said on The Times website that Scerri was not attacked personally. During the Baħrija protest (they were 300, like the Spartans), there were posters ridiculing him and with his photo.
I would like to know if the MEPA auditor is going to investigate and report on all cases where the DCC went against MEPA policies.
This contribution raises a rather important issue. Straightforward applications should not take more than one month from the date on which the application is validated to the date on which it is approved or otherwise by the Development Control Commission. For those readers who are not familiar with MEPA processes, the validation date is generally the date when MEPA receives confirmation from the bank that the applicant has paid the necessary fee for MEPA to process the application as well as other contributions (for road and drainage).
Two wrongs do not make a right. Whilst I expect Labour Party members to behave in this underhand manner , I do not expect the same behaviour from PN officials. Remember “Drittijiet mhux pjaciri “? I believed that then and I wish i could say that that is how things are now.
[Daphne – But that’s just the trouble, isn’t it? We set much lower standards for the Labour Party, and are then pleased when its people don’t behave abominably, as though that is all we can hope for.]
The trouble is that you are using the lower standards of the Labour Party to excuse lowering the standards of the Nationalist Party. in my modest opinion by doing this you are doing the Nationalist Party a disservice and encouraging further lowering of standards.
[Daphne – No. I merely live in a permanent state of irritation that so many people expect so little from Labour and so much from the Nationalist Party. To the average person, I suspect you are one of them, whatever the Labour Party does is the equivalent of Samuel Johnson’s remark about a dog walking on its hind legs: http://www.samueljohnson.com/dogwalk.html%5D
Oh so now we’re inventing things which happened 11 years ago? Why don’t we see what is happening now and not years ago when things actually worked in this country !!!
[Daphne – I’m not inventing them. They’re there in black and white on the MEPA website. And you can’t have failed to notice that the man in question is a future prime minister and present leader of the opposition. Had he robbed a bank 11 years ago, you would no doubt think this to be of consequence.]
Leanne: Actually, things DIDN’T work in the period you mention. That was the time the government that got in by a fluke pulled the plug on Malta’s EU application with no alternative policy except the crackpot idea of turning Malta into a Switzerland in the Mediterranean, withdrew from the Partnership for Peace at the time when the real Switzerland (not the one in the Mediterranean) signed up, and VAT was removed only to be replaced with a system so complex and convoluted that not even those who invented could make it work. Around that time, HRH the Leader of the Opposition (today’s version) ponced around acting important on the third rate ‘news’ channel “financed” by the party he now leads.
So what is happening now? That same person – the one with a gift for hindsight, rather than foresight – is now set to become Prime Minister. His major achievement so far is to make his predecessor look good. Now work out why the issue you believe is ‘invented’ is relevant today.
I believe JM’s family comes from the construction sector so although it might appear rather costly to embark on such a project he was probably helped in answer to your allegation that he was dealing in coke which I find pretty cheap and lowly. And 52, Triq San Pawl Milqi is (was) not in the middle of a pristine Bahrija valley anyway. Why don’t we start asking and investigating all those thousands who sold their homes for development instead, especially those on the Sliema front?
[Daphne – You’re wasting your time if you’re expecting FAA to do that. Most of them live in Sliema flats, and they operate their HQ out of a flat on ‘the Sliema front.’ I didn’t say he was dealing in coke, Gerald, though I could have made plenty of remarks about 24-year-olds who don’t have to work for their living or buy their own home growing up to preach about l-gholi tal-hajja. What exactly would Joseph Muscat know about it?]
Now you might start to understand why, as I had said a few months ago, most people on this tiny island of ours regard our politics and (especially) politicians, as totally and utterly useless. You might also start to understand why I had once said (and I still hold on to it), that my political ‘fever’ has always been, and always will be, at best, lukewarm. You’ve just presented a case of unjust procedures to suit the ‘hbieb’ of another time, another government, while every day we hear of unjust procedures going on to faciltate the ‘hbieb’ of this time, this government. I ask myself – what’s the use? Why keep faith with these people, who are only after our votes to gain, or maintain, a well-paid job for five years or more? Things like this happen at both sides of our Maltese political spectrum – so how can you ask me to believe in any side? Answer me this, and only this – in your opinion, do you really believe that one day we MIGHT get a bunch of HONEST, UN-CORRUPT, FAIR and JUST politicians who could lead this country by example? Ever?