Alternattiva Demokratika election candidate Carmel Cacopardo is standing by his promise to publish a report which the Malta Environment and Planning Authority has kept under wraps and which deals with decisions taken about the waste recycling plant at Marsascala.

He had given the Prime Minister 48 hours to publish the report, failing which, Mr Cacopardo said, he would do it himself. He said the 48 hours expired yesterday at 5.30pm and he would be making the report public on the AD website some time today.

Should he publish the report or, as the Prime Minister had asked him, should he leave that in the hands of the state’s institutions, he asked himself in his statement yesterday.

The Mepa, he said, had objected to publication because, it argued, publication would prejudice its position. The Mepa existed to defend the community, so why was it hiding from the community a report which shed light on how it operated?

Mepa auditor Joe Falzon deplored the promise he had made about publication, Mr Cacopardo added. He respected Mr Falzon. Mr Falzon’s declaration was motivated by respect towards the institutions. Mr Falzon respected the institutions even when he knew they failed.

The Ombudsman, at the request of the Mepa, had expressed the belief it would be proper to keep the report under wraps. Under normal circumstances the argument was valid – where the institutions operated as they should and carried out their functions. But in the case in question, Mr Cacopardo said, the institutions were complicit in keeping matters secret, and he had the moral obligation to go public.

Mr Cacopardo said that over the past weeks he had been approached more than once to issue the report anonymously. He could have done that but he had chosen to take responsibility for what he was doing.

The government’s opposition to publication of the report showed the hollowness of the declarations made on transparency and the right for information, he added.