Wednesday, November 28, 2007

Value for money

How can the Minister for Rural Development and the Environment continue to throw the public's money down the drain? Does he not realise that the public want to see value for their money?

The new incinerator was originally scheduled to open in June 2005, but now according to Wasteserv it should open on December 1, two and a half years late.

Worse still, originally the new incinerator should have been used just to burn the animal waste from the abattoir, but because the Ministry miscalculated it was built far too large. This means that in order to justify their expensive construction they are now proposing to burn all of Malta's waste, including toxic, hazardous, clinical, industrial and chemical waste.

Despite the expert opposition of the representative of the MRAE, who expressed his opposition several times on the IPPC Committee, this incinerator is situated right next to the public abattoir. Why didn't the Minister listen to his expert advisor? Why has he allowed the whole waste of Malta to be burned right next to the national food processing plant, the civil abattoir? Between the incinerator and the abattoir there is only a retaining wall.

How irresponsible is that? What damage could it do to the health of the whole nation? How does it comply with EU regulations?

What new cost will it involve to put these matters right if there is a health risk?

How can the Minister explain the purchase of a Lm150,000 packaging machine which is surplus to the incinerator's requirements? Is this more public cash thrown away down the drain?

When will the Minister realise his responsibility to spend public money wisely, and give the Maltese people proper value for their money?