Minister Miriam Dalli spent €450,000 on office leases for environmental authorities via direct orders

Environment Minister Miriam Dalli signed off on two direct orders worth over €450,000 to lease office space for Project Green and the Climate Action Authority (CAA).

Both entities are currently renting office space from Avenue 77 Business Centre, located in Mrieħel’s Central Business District.

According to the Government Gazette, Project Green spent a total of €289,860 on its temporary lease; however, no additional information was provided on the duration of the lease.

In 2023, former Project Green CEO and failed Labour MEP candidate Steve Ellul issued a call to rent offices for the entity for €2 million over five years, an agreement which seems to have been put on the back burner in favour of a direct order.

A spokesperson for the CAA, on the other hand, confirmed that the climate authority is renting office space for a total of €166,200 for one year, with a possible six-month extension if deemed necessary ahead of the CAA’s intent to formally launch a public tender next year.

“The temporary move was necessary due to the Authority’s growth and increasing staffing needs. A call to multiple premises aligned with sustainable and green certification requirements was issued, with proposals received and assessed in line with estimated procurement values and standard procurement procedures,” the CAA’s spokesperson added.

Avenue 77 is owned by Paradocs BIS S.A.R.L., registered in Luxembourg. It is described on LinkedIn as “a privately owned investor company” with an affiliate in Malta, with additional connections to other holding companies based in both countries.

While the fledgling climate authority struggles to make a dent in Malta’s laggard battle against climate change, Project Green is now an established entity that forms an integral part of Minister Dalli’s efforts to convince the electorate that the government’s environmental credentials are solid.

The CAA is headed by engineer Abigail Cutajar, one of Miriam Dalli’s key canvassers during the last general elections and was already on the public payroll as a €70,000-a-year person of trust prior to her appointment as CEO in October 2024.

Meanwhile, at the government’s flagship urban greening agency, Project Green has largely over-promised and under-delivered, concluding just 19 out of a total of 98 projects it promoted throughout 2024.

Project Green also served as a means to reward party loyalists with plum postings, with disgraced former MFSA CEO Joseph Cuschieri leading the agency after his predecessor’s departure.

One of Cuschieri’s first decisions as CEO of Project Green was to spend €1 million to recruit 19 new managers, with salaries averaging around €56,000 annually, and several of the recruits were linked to Cuschieri’s past tenures at the MFSA and the Malta Gaming Authority (MGA).

An investigation published by The Shift last month shows that, on the government’s official database listing all 217 public parks in Malta and Gozo, a third of those parks were comparable in size to a 5-a-side football pitch, with 80% of the so-called “parks” covering less ground than a standard 11-a-side pitch.