The Malta Environment and Planning Authority Audit Officer, Joe Falzon, has written to the Ombudsman and the Mepa chairman requesting that investigative officer Carmel Cacopardo be reinstated, “as an interim measure”.
Mepa does not want to renew Mr Cacopardo’s contract but Mr Falzon has on a previous occasion threatened to resign if Mr Cacopardo was not retained in his job.
Last week, the Ombudsman said he was not handing down any decision on the case but was bringing the situation to the attention of the Prime Minister and the Opposition Leader for a possible revision of the law with regard to the way the Audit Office operated.
Speaking to The Malta Independent, Mr Falzon said that following the Ombudsman’s referral of the case to the Prime Minister and the Leader of the Opposition, he wrote to the Ombudsman, copying his letter to the Mepa chairman, proposing that Mr Cacopardo should be reinstated as an “interim measure” until any government decision is handed down.
He said that once the government decided, the matter could be revised, if the need arose.
“I have no objection to work with Mr Cacopardo. It seems that the Mepa board is objecting to him because they say he is difficult to work with. I do not have such problems and it is with me that he has to work and not with the Mepa board. This is the compromise that I can offer at this stage. In the meantime, the volume of work here is increasing and I cannot cope on my own. After all, I am a part-timer because my full-time job is at university. I need some help and I have absolutely no problems with Carmel Cacopardo,” Mr Falzon told this newspaper.
Meanwhile, when asked about Mr Cacopardo’s statement, issued on Monday, Mr Falzon said he wanted to clarify some details about the 11 April, 2006 letter.
“In April, I was told Minister George Pullicino wanted to speak to me. I thought it was about an investigation that my office was conducting but it turned out that the minister wanted to speak to me about Mr Cacopardo. He said Mr Cacopardo was not acceptable to work in the audit office. I was very irritated and I gave myself some time to get over my anger. Then I wrote my resignation letter and handed it in.”
“Some time later, Minister Pullicino called me to explain that it was not he who thought that Mr Cacopardo was not acceptable within the Audit Office – he was not acceptable to the Mepa board. The chairman, who was also there, explained that Mr Cacopardo was difficult to work with. But I absolutely have no problems with him,” Mr Falzon said.
When asked whether Mr Calleja gave any reasons about why Mr Cacopardo was difficult to work with, Mr Falzon replied in the negative.
Mr Falzon continued that last week, he had a meeting with the Mepa board during which they discussed the Ombudsman’s recommendations and exchange of letters. He said he told the board that he had no objections to Mr Cacopardo.
He said that earlier yesterday, he wrote a letter to the Ombudsman and copied it to the Mepa chairman, in which he proposed that Mr Cacopardo be reinstated as investigative officer within the Mepa Audit Office “as an interim measure”. After that, if the government took any decision, the position would be reviewed. “This is the compromise I’m proposing. I will wait and see what feedback I get,” he said.
In a statement, Minister Pullicino strongly denied allegations that he had ever given Mepa instructions for Mr Cacopardo’s contract not to be renewed.
Mr Pullicino said that the contents of the 11 April, 2006 letter were not factual and in fact, he had spoken to Mr Falzon in person to explain that he had misunderstood him.
[email protected]