PA private jet was 'unwarranted influence', Ombudsman says

The Ombudsman’s office has criticised the hiring of a private jet for a Planning Authority board member to attend a hearing on the db Group’s controversial 37-storey St George’s Bay tower.Environment commissioner Alan Saliba said the extraordinary intervention “can be interpreted as if there were an unwarranted influence on the said member of the board”.The investigation came after a complaint by former Alternattiva Demokratika chairman Arnold Cassola, who asked the Ombudsman to examine whether the decision was a case of maladministration and whether it was discriminatory towards applications and objectors in other cases when no such measures were taken.“Neither the Authority or even more the Executive should intervene so that Members of the PA Board are present for meetings,” the environment commissioner said.“This is in conformity with the basic principle that each member of the Planning Authority Board should be left in liberty to attend the meeting and to listen to the various representations and finally decide when the vote is taken.”PA executive chairman Johann Buttigieg confirmed he had requested the €8,750 jet to fly board member Jacqueline Gili from and back to Sicily,...