Updated: Mepa environment protection director offers resignation

Mepa's environment protection director Petra Bianchi has offered her resignation, she confirmed this morning. Speaking to the press during a visit to St Aloysius' College, Prime Minister Joseph Muscat said he would "in the coming hours" be reviewing the resignation offers of Dr Bianchi and Mepa CEO Ian Stafrace, who offered his resignation yesterday. He said the resignations from these "positions of trust" would not necessarily be accepted and if they were, the Government would be seeing whether to appoint replacements directly or issue an internal call for applications.     Dr Bianchi would not say this morning what were the reasons behind her offer. She was appointed to the post in February 2011. She had previously served as executive president of Din l-Art Helwa. Then Mepa audit officer Joe Falzon had declared her direct appointment as irregular and the Labour Party had called on the government to shoulder its responsibilities. The appointment had been justified by the then Mepa chairman Austin Walker who  said it was faster process than a public call for applications.