Environment watchdog to be led by development permits champion

The government is tasking architect Vince Cassar with a new role as Chairman of the Environment and Resources Authority (ERA).

Cassar is the former Planning Authority chairman who approved thousands of development permits since the Labour party was swept to power in 2013.

Cassar, a former permanent secretary under a Nationalist Party administration, retired in 2008. Yet as soon as Labour was elected to govern in 2013, he found his way back into the country’s administration, with disgraced former Prime Minister Joseph Muscat appointing him as the chairman of the Planning Authority (PA).

He held the position until he was recently replaced by former Privatisation Unit head Manuel Camilleri.

The move to shift Cassar to ERA is being interpreted as an appreciation by the government of Cassar’s service to the Labour Party over the last decade in which developers in Malta funding the Party in government got a return on their investment.

The ERA is the regulatory agency responsible for the natural environment in Malta. Placing Cassar at its helm following his track record at the PA has called the move into question.

By way of a formal notice to Parliament’s Public Appointments Committee, Environment Minister Miriam Dalli asked MPs to approve the appointment of the 76-year-old architect as head of the environmental watchdog.

Although Cassar’s nomination still needs to be approved before he takes office, the procedure is a mere formality, given that the government holds the committee’s majority.

During his time as PA chairman, Cassar was given another retainer as a consultant at the government’s school building agency, the Foundation for Tomorrow’s Schools, also at the centre of several corruption scandals.

At the time, former education minister Evarist Bartolo had shielded Cassar from criticism, saying he had full confidence in Cassar’s integrity.

As an FTS consultant, Cassar received an additional €20,000 a year on top of his PA salary and a state pension commensurate to his former position as a permanent secretary.

Cassar will replace Prof Victor Axiak, whose stewardship of the Environment and Resources Authority (ERA) has been harshly criticised by environment NGOs.