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4 maltatoday | WEDNESDAY • 1 JULY 2020 NEWS LAURA CALLEJA MORE than 200 local varieties of fruit trees were lost over the last century but the creation of a national gene bank intends to reverse the trend. The gene bank will store seeds of endemic plants, propagation material and native endemic plants. Plans for the gene bank were unveiled on Tuesday by Agri- culture Minister Anton Refalo and EU Funds Parliamentary Secretary Stefan Zrinzo Azzo- pardi. The facility will be equipped with laboratories and equip- ment designed to conserve and study plants at a genetic level, allowing for collaboration with foreign partners. It will also be equipped with a public botani- cal museum, herbarium, a spe- cialised library and a roof gar- den with low lying indigenous plants. The development will take place at Plant Protection Direc- torate in Attard and is expect- ed to open its doors in 2022. "The national gene bank is a commitment to the continued preservation of the Maltese natural and cultural heritage… more than 200 local varieties of fruit trees have been lost over the last century and many Maltese crop varieties are un- der-utilised," Zrinzo Azzopardi said. Maureen Delia, acting direc- tor at the directorate, said the bank was a first for the island and highlighted Malta's con- tinued focus on conservation. Refalo said Malta needed to give young farmers the tools to best survive in the modern age and that the gene bank would act as a resourceful tool for them to use. "When I was chairman of Heritage Malta I understood the importance our past plays in influencing our future. To- day we recognise the mistakes made in the past, and do our best to move forward to con- serve our heritage," he said. Refalo said if no action was taken, the risk of losing further plant diversity will continuity. Scientists inside one of the vaults at the Royal Botanic Gardens in Kew, the UK (inset photo RBG Kew/ Andrew McRobb). Malta will soon get its own seed bank to preserve endemic plant species that will be built at the plant health directorate in Attard. Malta's first national plant gene bank to open in 2022 CONTINUED FROM PAGE 1 Arraigned separately by summons, the three officers, all from the traffic section, pleaded not guilty. 32 police officers are to be charged in total, divided between 4 magistrates. The alleged abuses with which the three were charged related to overtime duties regarding the construction of a flyover at Marsa. Inspector Bernard Bunce from the police internal affairs unit explained to magistrate Audrey Demicoli that he had received a letter from a whistleblower, al- leging that the police would be claiming overtime during office hours. The extra duties would be requested by non-police agencies, outside police hours. An invoice is issued and police are allo- cated and extra payments are made to the individual officers by the commissioner, Bunce explained. Police had used the motorcycle's Data- trak tracking system, together with invoic- es from the accounts section and other data to work out the officers' whereabouts and what they were claiming. Investigators found that few motorcycles had their Da- tatrak system working. "I started investigating Sgt Norman Xuereb as he was the brain behind the issue. The tracking data would show that the officers wouldn't be in the Marsa area during the time claimed. All call logs of the police involved were taken," Bunce said. Norman Xuereb, the liaison police of- ficer with Infrastructure Malta for whose Marsa flyover project the officers were expected to work on, would handle the overtime. Out of 27 tracking devices in- stalled on police motorcycles, only seven were functioning. The time and place of extra duties would not correspond with the data from the trackers and mobile phone geolocation data. "The majority of cases showed that they were anywhere but where they should have been," one witness said. One WPS, Sandra Sillato, who was as- signed a desk job, would get fuel payments despite not being assigned a motorcycle, he said. The global amount of over €47,000 the officers had received was all refunded and so no freezing orders were issued. A mag- isterial inquiry was instituted and arrest warrants issued in February 2020. Several WhatsApp group chats were found, in which the officers would agree on how to work out the extra duties pay. They would agree on one hour or two at a time, instead of full shifts and overlap their duties in this manner, the court was told. Cross-examining, lawyer Giannella De Marco said that Spiteri had nothing to do with the group chat. Not all of the 38 of- ficers interrogated were on the Infrastruc- ture Malta project, the court was told. On 11 February, orders were given to arrest everyone in the traffic section. In- spector Sant returned his motorcycle im- mediately and his office was sealed. Sant said he was using the motorcycle for a year and that it didn't have a tracking system installed. He said he had been informed by the liaison officer that extra duty for in- spectors was to remain on standby in case of problems, and that this did not involve them going on site. Sant had insisted that he would go to work in the morning and return home on standby till 10pm. But Infrastructure Malta CEO Frederick Azzopardi had denied the existence of this arraignment and had complained several times that no officers were there. Comparison of claims and consumption showed that there was definitely no theft of fuel by the two inspectors, the Superin- tendent said. The court was told that it was unclear whether the actual whistleblower had ap- plied for legal protection. The case was scheduled for the 22 Sep- tember. Lawyers Giannella Demarco, Stephen Tonna Lowell were defence counsel. As- sistant commissioner Ian Abdilla, Super- intendent Jesmond Borg and Inspector Bernard Bunce prosecuted. Only seven of 27 tracking devices on police motorcycles worked Police Superintendent Walter Spiteri, who used to head the Traffic Police Unit, resigned on 12 February