It’s a free world, PM says on Marlene Farrugia taking part in PN event
● Impossible that PM did not know about Valletta property expropriation - PN
It’s a free world was what Prime Minister Joseph Muscat kept repeating yesterday when he was faced with questions about Labour MP Marlene Farrugia’s participation in a Nationalist Party activity on Sunday.
Asked whether he was disappointed with her endorsing of a stand taken by the Opposition against the building of a university at Zonqor Point, or whether he interprets her move as showing disloyalty to her party, Dr Muscat kept saying “It’s a free world”.
Valletta expropriation deal
Asked to release documents pertaining to the deal reached with private investor Mark Gaffarena over property in Valletta, Dr Muscat said that the documents will be revealed if a Freedom of Information (FOI) request is filed.
The Prime Minister said the government is ready to be wholly transparent on the matter, and will acquiesce to an FOI request on the valuation of the property.
Mr Gaffarena purchased a stake in a Valletta property, which was expropriated by the government a few weeks later.
The purchase set him back €140,000, but he was ‘rewarded’ a few weeks later when the government took over the property and gave him €822,500 in cash as well as a large amount of land.
This is not the first time that Mr Gaffarena has benefitted financially from a government decision.
Shortly after the Labour government came to power in 2013, an illegally-built petrol station owned by his family was allowed to re-open thanks to a new Mepa policy. It was the only petrol station to have benefitted from the policy.
On the matter, Parliamentary Secretary for Planning Michael Falzon said the Land Department did not break any laws, and there was no form of political intervention or favouritism.
PN says it’s impossible Prime Minister did not know about Valletta property expropriation
In a press conference on the steps of Castille later in the afternoon, PN MP Jason Azzopardi said it is impossible that the Prime Minister had no knowledge of the deal.
Dr Azzopardi said the Lands Department is, for the first time, under the responsibility of the Prime Minister.
He said that this scandal took place when the media was dissecting the Auditor General’s report on the Cafe Premier bail-out. “Is it possible that no- body from the Lands Department alerted Dr Muscat on the issue? It cannot have been that Dr Muscat was not aware of this,” he continued.
Dr Azzopardi said that if the Prime Minister still thinks that everyone believes what he says, he is mistaken.
He called on Dr Muscat to make the file in question public so that the procedure used in this “revolting scandal” can be scrutinised. He said that each time Dr Muscat is involved, there’s a smell of corruption, reminding Dr Muscat that this is the third scandal following the Australia Hall and Cafe Premier ones.
When asked if it could be the case that someone at the Lands Department is behind the deal, Dr Azzopardi said that Dr Muscat should do what he expects others to do and come clean and shoulder political responsibility.
He said that the government has the funds to engage in significant pay-outs, such as in this case and that of Cafe Premier, but did not have funds to help cancer patients sustain their hefty medicine bills.