Issue link: https://maltatoday.uberflip.com/i/755517
14 IN a country as small and tightly interconnected as Malta, it is perhaps inevitable that popular attitudes towards 'conflicts of interest' would differ from the European norm. To cite but two recent examples of how such issues are dealt with elsewhere: in 2012, the European Food Safety Authority (EFSA) chairperson, Diána Bánáti, was made to resign over her presence on the board of ILSI, a food and agro-chemical industry-fund- ed body. The EFSA was in the process of debating the issue of genetically modified organisms (GMOs), in which ILSI had an interest. Separately, Icelandic Prime Minister David Gunnlaugsson resigned earlier this year over a conflict of interest involving not himself, but his wife, who was named in the Panama Papers revelations. In both cases, it is highly debat- able whether resignations would even be expected in Malta, still less received. Leaving aside that a Cabinet minister who was di- rectly implicated in the Panama Papers is still a Cabinet minis- ter today... Maltese politicians are legally permitted to retain all sorts of private interests that would be considered inap- propriate elsewhere in Europe: not so much because the inter- ests themselves are illegal, but because they may conflict with their public roles as politicians. It is even possible that the ex- pression means something dif- ferent here. When it transpired that Mott MacDonald – one of the consultancy firms involved in the Paceville masterplan – had provided consultancy services to the Mercury House project in Paceville, the reaction of the Planning Authority's CEO was to deny that this constituted a con- flict of interest at all. Enter Franco Mercieca, the government MP who chairs the parliamentary environment committee now re-examining the same Paceville masterplan, specifically in response to pub- lic concerns about the above and other issues. It also emerged that Mercieca is a 10% share- holder in property development firm Menfi, together with Joseph Portelli, developer of Mercury House. On closer scrutiny, how- ever, it turns out that there is no direct involvement in Portelli's other project in Paceville. Franco Mercieca was less than ecstatic when this newspaper reported that detail in an article about Mott MacDonald's possi- ble conflict of interest. I imagine he can't have been too thrilled when I raised the same issue in last week's interview with Debo- rah Schembri: mistakenly pre- senting him as a 10% shareholder in Mercury House, instead of in Menfi. Unsurprisingly, he is quick to point this out when we meet in the atrium of the Parliament building. It therefore strikes me as a good idea – which I admit I should have done sooner – to begin this interview by clarifying exactly what he owns first, be- fore deciding whether it consti- tutes a conflict of interest. "My involvement in Menfi started in 2010, way before I even considered entering the political environment," Mercieca begins. "And it only has one project, which is in Gozo [Hal Saghtrija, a 13-tumolo residential develop- ment]. The permit was issued before this government, under the Nationalists. It was all above board; I declared it in my dec- laration of assets. You're giving the impression, as a media or- ganisation, that I am involved with Joseph Portelli in the high- rise development in Paceville. This is not the case. Portelli has done other projects in the mean- time, but I've made it clear that I'm not going to be involved in any of them. This [Menfi] was something I got involved with in 2010. Once I entered politics, I no longer have any other in- terest in business. None at all. I even made it clear that if Menfi considers doing anything else, I would move out..." Fair enough: I acknowledge the error in last Sunday's interview with Deborah Schembri. But the question of possible conflict of interest still stands, albeit less conspicuously. Mott MacDon- ald turned out to be Mr Portelli's former consultants, and the mas- terplan itself seems to favour his project: to the extent of relocat- ing a planned public square onto someone else's property. Now, as chair of the parliamentary envi- ronment committee, Mercieca will be deciding on a project that involves his own business part- ner – admittedly, in a separate investment, but a business part- ner all the same. "I wasn't involved in the mas- terplan when it was drawn up..." But he is now... "As chairman of the committee, I asked the Prime Minister for an extension of the public consulta- tion. If I had any other interest, I would have stopped the con- sultation, not extended it. Then I asked for and got another ex- tension, for the next two weeks. And I also asked Mott MacDon- ald and Broadway Manning to come to Malta to actually give us all the information. If it wasn't for us, as a committee, doing all this – I won't take all the credit for it as chairman – maybe all this information wouldn't have come out. I can't see how I can be blamed for anything regard- ing the Paceville masterplan..." It's not a question of being blamed, but of having business links with an entrepreneur who stands to do very well out of a decision to be taken by Mer- cieca's committee. Wouldn't it make more sense to divest himself of these interests before chairing a committee that will revise the Paceville masterplan? "I can't pull out of a big invest- ment because I'm in politics. We'll finish [the Menfi project] off, and that's it. I mean, there's nothing wrong with investing, is there?" Not with the investment in itself. The question is wheth- er people with such interests should also be taking related de- cisions wearing a political hat. In this case, the connection is less direct than I earlier made out, as I've already admitted... but if we applied other European stand- ards to the case, Mercieca might easily be expected to relinquish his shares in a project co-owned with Portelli. "I would have much rather been criticised on my modus op- erandi, than on a potential con- flict of interest. Who in Malta doesn't have a potential conflict of interest? I'm not a nominee, hiding my shares. I've declared my assets. If you were investi- gating because I hadn't declared my shares, and you'd heard from something else... maybe you'd have a point. But I've declared my shares." But that's the whole issue right there. Mercieca said he shouldn't be expected to relinquish busi- ness interests upon entering pol- itics. In other countries, that's exactly what would be expected. The fact that he declared his in- terest only means that in Malta, having such interests is tolerated as long as they are not hidden. "I don't think I'm actually doing anything wrong in the way I'm working as chair of the committee. I think every person who has chaired this commit- tee before me also had interests in property. I am not the first or only one. What you're suggesting is that if I entered into business with someone, anything that someone does afterwards... I'm automatically involved. I didn't even know that Joseph Portelli would be one of the investors in Paceville. Now, if people think I should not chair the committee because of this issue..." he breaks into a chuckle... "they'd be doing me a favour. Less worries. No problem at all." Mercieca also refutes that the masterplan itself is concerned with any one project. "We're discussing a holistic plan: where to have public spaces, where to zone for high-rise, etc. It doesn't go into whether an individual project should have 20 or 40 sto- reys, or whatever. This is not the committee's business. Our job is to analyse the plan, and let oth- ers come up with their queries. In fact we've invited all the en- vironmental NGOs and other stakeholders to meetings, so that everybody can air their is- sues and complaints. As chair, I could easily have arranged it so that these complaints are not heard. After all that's how it al- ways used to be. It was the La- bour government that opened up parliamentary committees to the public. This is a new thing." In so doing, Labour also opened itself to a barrage of criticism: not just of the Pace- ville masterplan, but of its entire performance in the environmen- tal department. In the last three years, the number of mega-pro- jects controversially approved has (literally) skyrocketed... and thanks to a policy allowing the sanctioning of illegal buildings and the redevelopment of 'for- mer residences', construction activity has soared in large parts Interview By Raphael Vassallo maltatoday, SUNDAY, 27 NOVEMBER 2016 I would have much rather been criticised on my modus operandi, than on a potential conflict of interest. Who in Malta doesn't have a potential conflict of interest? For every operation I do, there's always a learning curve. No matter how good you are. If you don't have problems, it's only because you never did anything. Not because you're very good CONFLICT OF INTEREST LEARNING CURVE Judge me by how