What happens at the Lands Authority is very secretive, with little information being made available even to Board members “such as myself”, the PN’s spokesperson for Lands and Consumer Rights, Rebekah Borg said in an interview with The Malta Independent on Sunday.
“The Planning Authority has a lot of room for improvement, but the Lands Authority has even more, especially where transparency is concerned,” she said.
Additionally, the PA also has a better online system, with much of the information available to the public. Borg said that the Lands Authority should aim to have a better digital system, offering relevant information to the public in the same way that the PA does.
Borg went on to speak about a string of events which show the current lack of transparency at the Lands Authority.
As a Board member, Borg believes that she “should have information on everything within the authority, in a similar way that a director of a company should be privy to all relevant decisions”.
She said that she had asked several times for information from the authority itself, but “sometimes I am given this information, at other times I’m not”. Borg said that she had to end up asking for contracts and information from the authority through parliamentary questions, a means to acquire information which is only exclusive to Parliament members.
“I cannot understand why they are picking and choosing,” said the MP adding that she should be given access to all the information she needs in order to ensure that “things are done properly”.
Furthermore, Borg noted that citizens often have a hard time getting information from the authority, as well as the Joint Office, regarding their cases.
Borg mentioned the Gzira petrol station case, where the Lands Authority wanted to transform a public garden into a petrol station. The Gzira local council won the case last month after filing an appeal about the matter.
On this case the PN MP even noted how even the court in its judgement said that the Lands Authority should have held more discussions with the local council, adding that this is also a way of promoting transparency.
On another note, Borg said that the tables and chairs outside of restaurants should be better tackled legally, to better cater for instances of abuse.
“Silvio Schembri (Minister for the Economy, Lands and Industry) likes to attack the PN by saying that we are against business, but that is totally not the case,” she said. She added that as to the saga of tables and chairs, businesses, citizens and tourists alike should be able to enjoy the al fresco dining which is part of our culture, however, this should be done in accordance with the law.
Borg said that there should be legal changes for concerned authorities to better identify their role and responsibilities when handling permits to allow tables and chairs outside of restaurants.
“From a legal perspective there are a number of authorities involved: tourism, lands and a number of entities, but everyone passes the buck.”
Borg said that the PN is in favour of investment and the continous growth of the economy, however, it wants things to be done properly taking into consideration all stakeholders, including the residents of the particular area.
Jean Paul Sofia case
Borg also referred to the Jean Paul Sofia case. The 20-year-old man died when a building under construction collapsed in Kordin last December. Borg said that a public inquiry, which Sofia’s mother has been calling for with the support of the PN, is also a matter of ensuring more transparency.
Borg noted how despite usually certain documents being available online for most project buildings, when she checked for this particular Kordin building, some of the documents were missing.
Borg said she has been asking parliamentary questions to concerned ministries about the contracts signed by Industrial Innovative Solutions (INDIS) and third parties.
When she asked for the specific contracts related to this particular case, the MP said she was told by the minister to “go find the notary who made the contract or to find them on the notarial archives”.
This information was quite useless as in order for anyone to search and buy notarial archives you would need to know who the notary is, and when the contract was signed, she said.
Apart from transparency, the Lands Authority is also suffering from backlog, she said.
These issues could all be laid to rest as Minister Schembri last January said that there were plans for the total digitalisation of the authority’s physical files.
On this matter, Borg said that so far the current digital system does not meet today's technological standards and needs to be updated accordingly. It is also not public to those outside of the Land’s Authority.
“Furthermore, it seems that the process is still very far from being complete, and this also ties in with the issue of resources. On many works the Authority does a good job but the lack of resources needs to be addressed as soon as possible. Unfortunately, the Lands Authority still loses physical files on a very regular basis,” she pointed out.
Apart from being a PN’s spokesperson for Lands and Consumer Rights, Borg is also a self-employed engineer, working in the building services sector.
Asked to comment on the recent Construction Industry Licensing Regulations, Borg said that with regards construction law “there should be a holistic reform”. The laws as they are today are too fragmented.
Last February, in presenting a bill on the licensing of building contractors, Public Works and Planning Minister Stefan Zrinzo Azzopardi said that the idea is aimed to “improve standards”.
She said that the institutions cannot wait for an accident to happen to change parts of the law, but “it has become a complete piecemeal approach”.
From her experience as an engineer on construction sites, more often than not professionals on site do not know where their legal remit starts and ends.
A legal reform would enable professionals to know their specific responsibilities on site, Borg said. On the matter, she said Zrinzo Azzopardi had informed Parliament that in collaboration with the Faculty of Law at the University of Malta, an analysis is taking place as to the several fragmented laws dealing with the construction industry. Borg said this was a beneficial exercise, one which needed to be concluded as soon as possible so that a holistic reform can be put forward. “The more time passes, the more likely it is that more accidents will happen.”
Inflation
Asked about the government initiative in tackling the country’s inflation problem by subsidising electricity and water bills, Borg said that the PN is not against any form of financial help. However, she went on to question how sustainable this approach is long term.
She said that the tax refund cheques that have been distributed in the past weeks are just short-term measures.
"We need a plan which is not from today till tomorrow.” We cannot just rely on a short-term plan; we also need medium- and long-term plans.
The hospitals deal
Borg was also asked for a reaction to the official police complaint filed by PN Leader Bernard Grech and PN MP Adrian Delia to investigate all the details that emerged in court in relation to the hospitals’ case. Last February, a court of law annulled a deal which had seen three public hospitals passed on to be administered by a private company.
Borg said that the Opposition is asking the police to do their duty and investigate the deal and anyone who was involved in it. “All those responsible need to be investigated.”
The decision taken by the courts last February saw the PN gain political momentum. When asked if the momentum can be sustained Borg said this was the culmination of many months of work by the PN, not only on the three hospitals but on other matters of national importance.
“The public is seeing the fruit now, as there was a lot of work behind the scenes,” she said.
Borg, who was elected to Parliament for the first time in March 2022, via a casual election, was asked for her views on her first year as an MP.
“There are a lot of members of Parliament who have literally dedicated their lives to politics,” she said. Borg also said that although there is still four years to go for the next general election, the PN is planning to keep the momentum in order to win the next general election.
As to the gender mechanism, Borg said the result required was achieved – more women were elected to Parliament. She said the importance of having more females in Parliament is what made the mechanism a success, however, the gender mechanism exercise should have been marketed better.
Borg said that when she was campaigning to get elected some people used to tell her that they were going to pick another candidate because women would be elected anyway by means of the gender mechanism. She continued to note that this worked against the overall concept of better representation in Parliament.
She said that there are people who criticise the fact that the number of women MPs grew because they were helped by such a mechanism. “How an MP is elected is irrelevant,” she said. “The question is whether they are doing a good job or not.”