”The destruction of the Xewkija heritage house that commenced yesterday is not happening in a bubble,” stated NGO Flimkien ghal Ambjent Ahjar.

FAA argued that, ”it is enabled by a system that has been corrupted to the point that checks and balances have been rendered non-functioning at even the highest level, the previously unimpeachable Superintendence of Cultural Heritage.” The NGO called it a ”cabul of corruption.”

In a statement on Friday, FAA highlighted that, ”when people refurbishing an unremarkable house of character receive two or three visits from the Superintendence of Cultural Heritage (one cannot be careful enough), yet a museum-grade farmhouse, rich in the rarest features reportedly belonging mainly to Joseph Portelli is not even inspected once, one knows that something is rotten in the house of the Superintendence.”

The NGO said that, ”we remember the time when the Planning Authority rescinded permits which turned out not to be wholly owned by the applicant, such as the infamous Ramla l-Hamra permit for 28 villas, that FAA had succeeded in having rescinded because of a narrow 10-foot public path.”

”But now we have the same Planning Authority accepting people fronting applications and others claiming to be owners of the site, as if nothing is wrong with these tactics,” it said.

FAA argued that ”similarly, when a Joseph Portelli crony is appointed to a controlling position at ERA aren’t people justified in suspecting the worse when projects are waived through without the need for Environment Impact Assessments that risk highlighting their damaging impact?”

”Salami-slicing, ie, applying for single projects in smaller parts in order to skirt the EIA requirement, has become Portelli’s favourite meal, but no matter how case after case is flagged up, the Authorities are blind to it,” FAA said.

The NGO pointed out that ”something new and bizarre also happened in Xewkija. The Planning Authority refused the first application, but then it approved the second application – filed just 6 days after the first one was refused – and this despite the fact that the second proposal involved more destruction of the old property than the first.”

”Is it surprising that people suspect dirty work behind such illogical acrobatics?” asked FAA.

Flimkien ghal Ambjent Ahjar ”urgently calls on Environment Minister Aaron Farrugia, responsible for the Planning Authority, to immediately stop the ongoing destruction of this farmhouse by issuing an Emergency Conservation Order without delay.”

It stated that, ”this needs to be followed up by an investigation as to why the Case Officer ignored the grounds of refusal of the first application, in recommending approval of a more damaging one. Finally, the investigation needs to look into the Environment Planning Commission abysmal failure to block such destruction of heritage.”

Flimkien ghal Ambjent Ahjar concluded by saying that, ”failure to do so will render both the Ministry and Planning Authority complicit in this crime of destruction of our national heritage. A nation that destroys its past, destroys its future.”

Permalink: ”Cabul of corrupution” – Something is ”rotten” in the house of the Superintendence – FAA