Environmental consultant Mario Schembri is questioning the Environment and Resources Authority’s decision to reopen studies for an incinerator in Magħtab for public consultation under a new coordinator.
Schembri, representing AIS Environment Ltd, filed a judicial letter against the ERA calling for a copy of documentation, including board minutes, supporting its decision to commission another environmental impact assessment of the project, after concerns about a potential conflict of interest surfaced in public.
Schembri had originally been commissioned by WasteServ to prepare “a site selection report, an appropriate assessment, air dispersion modelling and an environmental impact assessment” in relation to the construction of a waste-to-energy facility at Magħtab.
Auditor Chris Baldacchino, currently facing money laundering charges, was granted bail days after being remanded in custody upon his arraignment.
Baldacchino is pleading not guilty to his involvement in the laundering of large amounts of money from alleged criminal activity by filtering them into the country’s commercial system through irregular means.
Last year, Chris Baldacchino and Associates was fined some €58,000 by the Financial Intelligence Analysis Unit for lax anti-money laundering controls that could have “possibly led the firm to be used and abused by money launderers to bypass checks that would otherwise have been carried out.”
During Baldacchino’s arraignment, Inspector Omar Caruana told the court that the auditor was first arrested in November and had been interrogated a number of times pending police investigations which had started in April 2020.