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James Debono
Following revelations in this newspaper that the Zebbug council owes Lm293,000 to government and private contractors and that pornographic material had been found on one of the council’s computers, tension in the Labour camp has reached new heights.
In the last council meeting the newly elected Labour mayor found herself in a minority of one despite a Labour majority on the council.
In the meantime MaltaToday has learnt that in February 2005 an investigation carried out by the internal audit and investigations directorate of the Department of Local Government rebuked the former mayor for “not honouring his duties and responsibilities.” The report found a number of irregularities in the way direct orders were issued by the former mayor.
The same investigation also reprimands three PN councillors for only attending for 50-60 per cent of local council meetings.
Furthermore former MLP councillor Joe Vella has entered the fray by claiming the new mayor herself had told him on the retrieval of 7,000 pornographic pictures from the council’s computer.
He also claims that former Labour mayor Ciantar had misled the council on a direct order to a private contractor for works conducted in Sqaq il-Qenc which have cost the council Lm3,382.
MLP rift
During a meeting of the Zebbug local council held on 21 July, a PN motion calling on the council to meet again on 28 July was approved after four Labour councillors abstained and three Nationalist councillors voted in favour.
Mayor Paula Vella Sciriha was the only Labour councillor to vote against the PN motion.
The meeting was subsequently cancelled after the councillors were informed by a letter that the mayor could not attend for this meeting due to personal reasons.
The local council has not met since then.
During the same meeting the PN councillors presented an urgent motion calling for weekly council meetings in the light of the grave financial and administrative problems encountered.
In a press release issued two days before the meeting the PN councillors referred to the debt accumulated by the MLP led councils in the past and the current divisions among MLP councillors.
The MLP majority refused to discuss this motion citing the fact that this item was not on the agenda.
PN councillor Philip Mifsud told MaltaToday that divisions in the Labour camp were curtailing the work of the council to the extent that in spite of the grave financial crisis facing Zebbug, the council is only meeting once a month.
According to Mifsud the Council has not even met to discuss important matters like the South Local Plan.
“The deadline for submissions was the end of July. I ended up making submissions in my own personal capacity,” Mifsud said.
He also remarked the local council has failed to comment on an application by the Transport Authority to remove the traffic light system near the Rohan Arch and to replace it with a roundabout system.
The Council has yet to appoint a new administrative secretary three months after the contract of the previous secretary was not renewed.
Philip Mifsud also told MaltaToday that four PN councillors had requested an investigation on financial mismanagement in Zebbug in the 2002-2005 period.
The four PN councillors Philip Mifsud, Philip Said, George Cortis and the brother of PN secretary-general, Pio Saliba had called for an investigation on financial mismanagement in a letter sent to the Local Councils Department on 7 November 2003.
Damning investigation
The investigation carried out by the Internal Audit and Investigations Directorate includes a number of damning revelations on the way direct orders were issued for works carried out in the locality.
According to the report works orders were only issued for five assigned jobs out of 37 transactions.
The same report states that only the mayor used to sign these works orders as the Executive Secretary refused to sign as she did not want to be held responsible for the direct orders even when these where justified by the Local Council’s financial regulations.
Contacted by MaltaToday the executive secretary explained that she had refused to sign works orders because these where issued as direct orders without the approval of the council.
Strangely enough one of these works orders did not even include the mayor’s written approval.
Another irregularity noted in the report is that in four out of five jobs for which a works order was issued “the invoice was issued on the same day the work started.”
The investigation is critical of the way contracts were awarded by the mayor.
It says that a public tender should have been issued for patching work in Triq ir-Ramel, which amounted to Lm5,904, and work in Vjal il-Helsien amounting to Lm6,463. These works were awarded to VR Works and Raymond Calleja.
The investigation found out that all the invoices for infrastructural works issued by Raymond Calleja lacked important details like measurements, rates and description of the work done. The invoices were not even dated or numbered.
It also found that the same in one instance Victor Refalo was paid Lm727.86 more than what had been actually approved by the council for works in Vjal il-Helsien. The report describes this as “highly unprofessional and unethical.”
PN councillors reprimanded
One of the contentions of the PN councillors who requested an investigation was that works had been carried out without the council’s approval.
Yet it turns out that these councillors had not objected when Ciantar proposed that certain works should not require the approval of the council.
The investigation found that in 13 instances amounting to Lm3,179, contractor Victor Refalo was paid without the prior approval of the local councillors.
Yet the investigation reveals that the PN councillors had not objected when on 8 August 2002 the mayor informed the council that he was engaging a lot of small contractors for various jobs since they were providing a good service at a low price.
It was only in December 2002, that a PN councillor proposed that urgent infrastructural works or works of small value should be approved by the council before the issue of a works order.
The MLP majority turned down this proposal.
But surprisingly when in December 2003, the former Labour mayor proposed that works of a small nature and urgent infrastructural works should not need the approval of the local council, none of the PN councillors present in this meeting objected to the mayor’s request.
The report describes the behaviour of the PN councillors on this issue as “contradictory.”
The report notes that the same PN councillors who on 7 November had denounced the mayor for issuing direct orders without the prior approval of the council had given a free hand to the mayor on this matter during a meeting held a few weeks later.
The report also rebukes three of the four PN councillors who had signed the letter requesting an investigation “for their lack of attendance between April 2003 and March 2004.”
According to the investigation these three PN councillors only attended about 50-60 per cent of the meetings. It also resulted that they did not always inform the council on their absence.
The report describes this behaviour as “unethical” and “irresponsible” when one considers that “this is the only formal means wherein councillors get together to discuss and take decisions on important issues related to Zebbug.”
Finally in its conclusions the report states that the mayor and the executive secretary are not honouring their duties and responsibilities assigned to them in terms of the Local Councils regulations.
It also recommended that appropriate action be taken against those who were responsible for ensuring that such irregularities did not occur.
Ex MLP councillor speaks out
Joe Vella, a former MLP councillor is also insisting that a proper investigation is conducted on the retrieval of pornographic material in the council’s computer.
Vella told MaltaToday that he had heard about the retrieval of porn from “the Zebbug Square.”
Following this Vella claims that he went to the local council to talk to mayor Paula Vella Schriha. Vella claims that the mayor herself confirmed that these rumours were true.
“She even told me that 7,000 pornographic pictures had been retrieved and that she had copied this evidence on a CD.”
Vella added that a pass was required to get access to the computer involved and it was not true that everybody could have had access to this computer.
In a letter published in MaltaToday in June, former mayor Joe Ciantar and the other MLP councillors with the notable exception of the new mayor declared that the material involved dated back to before 2002.
jdebono@newsworks.com
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