Updated | PN takes Deborah Schembri to task over Paceville masterplan fiasco

The Nationalist Party has insisted that Deborah Schembri shoulder political responsibility for the controversial Paceville masterplan that has been presented to the Planning Authority.

Schembri on Wednesday insisted that she was unaware that Mott MacDonald – one of two consultancy firms that drafted the masterplan – had a potential conflict of interest.

However, Opposition MPs Marthese Portelli and Ryan Callus said in a joint statement that Schembri should not be exonerated from blame, given that this shortcoming had taken place under her watch.

“It is unacceptable for Schembri to try and excuse herself of responsibility with the excuse that she had no idea what was going on under her nose in an authority that she is politically responsible for,” they said.

“It is not enough for Schembri to speak about the need for remedies. There can be only one possible remedy – for the current masterplan to be scrapped, and for a new plan to be drafted that is in the national interest and not in the interest of a select few.”

They added that the PA must issue a fresh public call for the drafting of a new Paceville masterplan, this time with clear stipulations that the consultants must be independent and must not have a conflict of interest.

In a reaction, Schembri insisted that the PA is an autonomous authority and dismissed the PN’s demand for her to shoulder political responsibility as “a disproportionate and frivolous request”.

Schembri said last week that the Planning Authority had contracted foreign consultancy firms to draft the masterplan specifically to avoid potential conflicts of interest. However, it was revealed only a few days later that Mott MacDonald had actually drafted engineering reports for one of the skyscrapers envisioned in the masterplan – the Mercury House project, which is the brainchild of developer Joseph Portelli.

Mott Mac Donald official Damien Price told the planning and environment committee on Wednesday that the firm had verbally informed PA executive chairman Johann Buttigieg of their work on the Mercury House project, but were given the go-ahead that this didn’t constitute a conflict of interest. Buttigieg later told MPs that the firm didn’t have a conflict of interest and that it wasn’t even working for Joseph Porteli, but for Zaha Hadid – the famed architectural firm that has designed what would be Malta’s tallest building.

During the meeting, Schembri insisted that she hadn’t been informed of Mott MacDonald’s prior consultancy work until recently, arguing that a distinction exists between the PA and the central government. A day later, she announced that the government will review the masterplan. 

The St Julian's local council on Thursday announced that they will be opposing the proposed masterplan. 

‘No conflict of interest, Opposition being frivolous’ – Schembri

In a reaction, Deborah Schembri insisted that Mott MacDonald’s prior consultancy work on the Mercury House project did not constitute a conflict of interest.

“Mott MacDonald weren’t contracted by the developers [Joseph Portelli], but by Zaha Hadid,” she said in a statement. “As Mott MacDonald’s officials explained, the company employs 16,000 people spread out across different branches. These branches have a confidentiality policy when dealing with each other. Moreover, it was Broadway Malyan that worked on the masterplanning, landscaping, design, architecture and environmental sustainability aspects of the project, while Mott MacDonald was in charge of coming up with a holistic transport strategy and of identifying the infrastructural requirements for this vision.”

She dismissed the Opposition’s demand for her to shoulder political responsibility as a “disproportionate and frivolous” request.

“As usual, the Opposition has lost no time in finding ways to be destructive. It’s a shame that a masterplan that can raise the level of planning in Malta to new heights has now ended up as a partisan tool in the hands of an Opposition that has no interest in seeing the country progress.”