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PR 03/23 | When in a hole…

Reference is made to this afternoon’s article carried in the MaltaToday online titled “Planning minister refuses to apologise to Kamra tal-Periti over scheme rollout blunder”.

 

At the onset, the Kamra tal-Periti wishes to point out that it never requested an apology for itself or the members of its Council, but for all periti who wasted a week of their professional time, their dignity trampled on, as well as to their clients whose hopes were needlessly raised through the extensive PR. Funds that could have been diverted towards more restoration projects.

 

Nevertheless, it is pertinent to point out that in none of the “consultation” meetings held with the Planning Authority nor with the Minister was the Irrestawra Darek scheme ever brought up.

The first Council members heard of the scheme was on 19th May at 3.30pm; the day the scheme conditions were communicated to all periti via email.

Our immediate reaction was of shock and dismay as we noted that the date and time chosen seemed to intentionally clash with the seminar organised by the Kamra regarding the Santa Luċija judgement to which the PA was invited. We raised our concerns with both the Minister and the Executive Chairperson about this, and asked for the opening to be shifted by a day or at least moved to 2pm. The Minister’s response was that he was only willing to shift the opening to 12pm. However, we never got direct confirmation of this shift until Monday, when an email sent out to all periti confirmed the change in time – causing a general scramble across the profession and in the organisation of the seminar.

Given that the scheme conditions had been formalised, there was clearly no scope for integrating the recommendations about the 2019 edition the Kamra had given former Ministers for Planning Ian Borg and Aaron Farrugia, as well as former PA Board Chairperson Perit Vince Cassar, and former Executive Chairpersons Johann Buttiġieġ and Martin Saliba, among others.

It is indeed unfortunate that none of the aforementioned provided a proper handover to the current Minister and Planning Authority administration. It would have certainly averted the debacle in this year’s edition.

Had the handover been effected, or the Kamra consulted, the Minister would have been made aware of our objection to the first-come first-served basis as well as other negative elements of the scheme.  The first to benefit from the Kamra’s recommendations, as always, would be the Minister and the affected authority.

 

Despite the above, we welcome the fact that Minister Zrinzo Azzopardi is finally considering reopening the scheme after taking our recommendations into consideration.

 

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PR 02/23 | The Irrestawra Darek Farce

The launch of the Irrestawra Darek scheme earlier today signalled the epitome of the Planning Authority’s disregard for the profession.

The scheme, which was heralded which much pomp and fanfare, opened at 12 noon today. To the consternation of periti and their clients, the online application platform collapsed within seconds under heavy traffic of users all trying to race each other at getting their applications through. After two hours of refreshing the error pages, the application form disappeared from the website indicating that the scheme may have been shut down by the Planning Authority altogether.

The scheme wasted a full week of work of several architecture studios, with the risk that disappointed customers may blame their architects for their unsuccessful attempts at applying, rather than the preposterous application system adopted by the PA, and not pay them for their services.

This is indeed not the first time this scheme has failed for similar reasons, although never was this scheme managed as badly as today. The Planning Authority launched this scheme without heeding any of the recommendations the Kamra tal-Periti had given it in past editions, including the removal of the first-come-first-served basis, and keeping the scheme permanently open.

 

This time, however, the Kamra cannot be satisfied with sending polite and articulated recommendations which remain ignored. Indeed, the Kamra is making the following demands pursuant to today’s debacle:

  1. The Planning Authority issue an apology to all periti for the disdain shown to the profession through the logistics behind the scheme. A similar apology should be issued to the clients who missed out on the scheme.
  2. An immediate repeal of the first-come-first-served basis, and the reopening of the scheme until the end of June 2023 to allow everyone who did not win the browser refresh lottery to have an opportunity to benefit from the scheme.
  3. The drawing of lots from all eligible applicants after June 2023 to determine who will succeed in getting the funds.
  4. The immediate reopening of the scheme without an end-date and the placing of applicants in a waiting list until funds are made available again.

 

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