Issue link: https://maltatoday.uberflip.com/i/460957
maltatoday, WEDNESDAY, 11 FEBRUARY 2015 3 CONTINUED FROM PAGE 1 The as- sociation's former chairman, Lino Bugeja, criticised what he de- scribed as pandering to the wrong- doers. "While we are deliberating, Rome is burning. We cannot allow this constant nibbling of the coun- tryside and coastal zone while dis- cussions drag on," he said. "It will be interpreted that your abuse has paid off and now you will be rewarded for it by giving you what legally you could not achieve. The authorities should also be investigating who was re- sponsible for this breakdown of the system. The 10,000 illegalities figure is very misleading. This is only the number of infringements that were actually served with an enforcement notice. A quick look at the MEPA website will reveal cases dating back as far as 1993, but no other information is dis- played on these cases. "The government can't make laws and then say it doesn't have the resources to enforce them," Ramblers Association member Joe Agius said. "If buildings are in the ODZ they should be demol- ished – it is in the law. Our posi- tion is 'go by the law'. Prof. Edward Mallia, represent- ing Friends of the Earth Malta, said that the proposed bill for the amnesty was not yet available, and he criticised claims by MEPA CEO Johann Buttigieg that there were thousands of cases that can- not reasonably be enforced. "Staff shortage is used to cover a continuous dereliction of duty by MEPA. There have always been the incompetent and corrupt case officers and the MEPA officials in cahoots with developers, much mentioned in the Auditor's re- ports, to make sure matters were never speeded up. "When any suggestion is made that an amnesty – for despite the CEO's objection to the term that is what is being proposed – may not be in the best public inter- est, 'hard cases' are trotted out to make any suggestion of good law enforcement get painted in the darkest, preferably political, colours." He described the argument that the construction sector is impor- tant to the economy as a "myth pushed by developers". "Tourism employs 30,000 peo- ple, construction employs may- be 11,000, who are now mostly foreigners… the government is already close to being guilty of complicity in a crime, by allowing an amnesty on the Armier elec- tricity theft, while law abiding citizens are hauled to court for the late payment of bills." Mallia pointed out that even a solar farm policy will allow illegal quarries to regularise themselves through the back door. "You can- not have a clearer admission of MEPA failure than that." Alternattiva Demokratika dep- uty chairperson Carmel Cacop- ardo said that if the planned am- nesty goes ahead, the government would have been an accomplice in an environmental crime. Hydrologist Marco Cremona said the sanctions would give the hugely damaging message that it is acceptable to f lout the law, and commit an illegality, because at some stage the government will give you the opportunity to regu- larise the illegality. "The second borehole registration exercise of 2008 added a few thousand bore- holes to the register of 1997 which clearly shows that the 'amnesty' of 1997 effectively encouraged more people to drill boreholes in subse- quent years," the co-founder of the Malta Water Association said. His comments were echoed by architect Philip Grech, also of the Malta Water Association. "The notion that MEPA should resort to such an amnesty sets a precedent which will be as open-ended and as cynical as the numerous repa- triation schemes of undeclared funds. MEPA has in all probability hardly ever enforced the legal re- quirement of a rainwater cistern in each development. This amnesty cannot cover such instances, and the f looding caused but such de- velopments must still be subject to future redress." News AD: 'Government will be accomplice in environmental crime'