The president of the Chamber of Architects and Civil Engineers Alex Torpiano expressed his “complete disgust” and “shame” at comments made by Architect Robert Musumeci in an interview with David Thake. 

Journalist Daphne Caruana Galizia recently revealed that parliamentary secretary for lands Deborah Schembri will be using Dr Musumeci’s services on work at a property she had acquired in Burmarrad, the house adjacent to the Prime Minister’s private residence.

Robert Musumeci is the consultant for the Reform of the Lands Department which is being carried out by Dr Schembri’s office. Both have had to face questions surrounding a potential conflict of interest, the the parliamentary secretary telling The Malta Independent that she sees nothing wrong.

In a social media post, Prfs Torpiano rejected Mr Musumeci’s statement, saying that the chamber does not have a seat of the Planning Authority’s users committee. Dr Schembri had selected Chris Mintoff to have a position on the committee rather than ask the Chamber of Architects & Civil Engineers to nominate its representative.

The users committee supervises the general functioning of the Planning Authority particularly to ensure, in the interest of the general public, a fair and transparent process which creates uniformity in the authority’s decisions and actions.  

Prfs Torpiano, who is also the Dean of the Faculty of Archiecture at the Univeristy of Malta, also said that when the Chamber informed the Parliamentary Secretary that the law required that she declare those entities which have an interest in planning issues, rather than select the representative itself, Dr Schembri said that her legal advice had been different. 

Chris Mintoff then resigned his nomination.

Prfs Torpiano also said that Dr Musumeci’s statement that the President of the Council had direct access to senior officials of the Planning Authority and thus held a senior position was “untrue, and was untrue of any member of the council”.

In reply, and also on social media, Dr Musumeci expressed his regret that Prfs Torpiano had misinterpreted his comments due to ‘out of context’ media reports. 

He claimed that in the interview he referenced Article 62 in Maltese Law which states that the Users Committee has the role to propose to the executive council changes to the process of the administrative commission of planning matters whenever they deemed appropriate. 

The law itself, he said, provides that among the members of the committee, there should be a representative for national constituted bodies. 

It is uncontested that among these members were people who contributed greatly to the committee, including Chris Mintoff, Dr Musumeci explained. 

Dr Musumeci also said that the Users Committee along with other organs within the legislative framework of planning decisions, which also include a representative from members of the profession, have implemented some very important and successful changes. 

The example he gave was the introduction of the board of appeal, which Dr Musumeci says was scrapped by the board under the previous administration (which Prfs Torpiano formed part of),and the Valletta Rehabilitation Committee. 

He also clarified that in the interview he said that a number of industry professionals meet with the executive to express their ideas, including himself, and this was done with a lot of due diligence. 

He said that it was in his view that the involvement of industry professionals within the framework concerning planning matters should be based on the truth, and it should never be interpreted as members enjoying privilege at the expense of others. 

He also explained that he has always helped his colleagues whenever he’s been asked, especially now that he was Doctor of Law, which service has always been given to colleagues with no financial interest.

He instead asked for an apology from Prfs Torpiano. 

“Robert, you’ve said a lot but nothing at the same time. I heard what I heard with my ears, and not on some newspaper report” Prfs Torpiano replied.