Investigation requested about Project Green’s direct orders and recruitment

The Deputy Chairperson of ADPD, Carmel Cacopardo, has asked the Auditor General to investigate two recent reports by The Shift about Project Green.

One of the reports referred to an abusive €1 million direct order regarding the Bormla carpark project. The Shift reported that architect Edwin Mintoff was awarded the direct order, in breach of procurement rules, to turn a dilapidated car park into an underground car park with a garden above.

The public property was previously allocated to the American University of Malta by disgraced former prime minister Joseph Muscat in a controversial deal.

Project Green is managed by CEO Joseph Cuschieri, who had to bow out of the MFSA in shame following his trip to Las Vegas, which was paid for by Yorgen Fenech. He was brought back in to a government agency thanks to Minister Miriam Dalli.

The second complaint to the Auditor General was based on irregularities in the recruitment of a number of persons in different grades for Project Green. The complaint states that the recruitment was tainted with nepotism.

The Shift has reported that Cuschieri has already spent over €1 million in a recruitment drive for a project that has so far yielded limited results. Cuschieri already employed 19 managers with a €56,000 salary. And there is very limited return on this investment.

According to information acquired through Freedom of Information requests by The Shift, Cuschieri’s managers will cost taxpayers over a million a year in remuneration.

Apart from their already high basic salaries, most of Cuschieri’s recruits, some with very few years of experience, are receiving a raft of perks, including thousands in “responsibility allowances”, fuel and cars, “project allowances”, and even a “warrant allowance” when the job necessitates a qualification, such that of an architect.

Project Green has been allocated €700 million to enable it to carry out its mission, but it does not look like this is being carried out carefully and according to the law, the complaint said.