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2 maltatoday | WEDNESDAY • 17 SEPTEMBER 2025 NEWS KURT SANSONE ksansone@mediatoday.com.mt Fortina denies it has agreed to 'pay the difference' following NAO probe THE Fortina Group has denied claims made by lawyer Jason Az- zopardi it has agreed to pay the difference in value on the 2019 deal with government. The deal was investigated by the National Audit Office, which found that Fortina paid substan- tially lower compensation after a top Lands Authority official kept a report proposing a higher valu- ation hidden. The damning NAO report was tabled in parliament on Mon- day and a day later, the Maltese branch of Fondazione Falcone, an anti-mafia organisation, along with lawyer Jason Azzopardi filed a criminal complaint with the police asking for a criminal in- vestigation into the findings of the NAO. After this, Azzopardi took to Facebook and claimed that For- tina had "accepted to pay the difference of millions of euros so that the government will dampen the impact of the scandal". The lawyer said any such action does not mitigate the "fraud and crim- inal conspiracy" that happened. However, a spokesperson for the Fortina Group told Malt- aToday: "Fortina categorically denies claims stating that it has agreed to 'pay the difference'. It is to be noted that the process announced by Deputy Prime Minister Ian Borg has yet to start and augurs that any decision tak- en will be in line with policy and fair." On Tuesday, Borg convened an urgent meeting of parliament's National Audit Committee to discuss the Fortina case. This committee, which approved the 2019 deal, was misled back then since the report proposing high- er compensation was not made available to it. The debate proper is expect- ed to start on 6 October with Borg going on record saying the government intends to "recover every cent owed to the public" from the Fortina deal. The company spokesperson added: "Fortina wishes to under- line that the value agreed upon and passed through parliament in 2019 was not for the purchase of the land, as many are wrongly claiming. The price paid was only for the removal of two conditions on a small part of the land owned by Fortina for nearly 40 years." In its first reaction to the NAO findings, the company said it would study the voluminous re- port before commenting on it. The case revolves around four parcels of land in Sliema that For- tina had acquired many decades earlier for the development of its hotel. These land parcels had contractual conditions tied to them that limited the type of de- velopment and building heights that Fortina wanted to be waived. In 2019, Fortina entered into a new contract with the govern- ment that waived the conditions against payment of €8.1 million. However, the NAO found that an independent audit firm had val- ued the waivers at a maximum of €23.9 million but this report was kept hidden by the authority's then chairman Lino Farrugia Sac- co. The NAO also revealed that Keith Schembri, the chief of staff at the Office of the Prime Minis- ter, also knew about the higher valuation but was involved in the efforts to conceal it. Schembri has denied any wrongdoing and told the NAO he could not recall his involve- ment in the Fortina deal. The Fortina deal and its red flags were the subject of an Auditor General report released on Monday (Photo: James Bianchi/MaltaToday) CONTINUES FROM PAGE 1 Government and opposition MPs disagreed on whether the committee should recommend the Public Accounts Committee to open a discussion on the scan- dalous contract. Borg said that the parliamenta- ry committees should move one step at a time. The committee's discussion is set to open on Monday 6 Octo- ber. The scandal A National Audit Office inves- tigation tabled in parliament on Monday revealed how the Forti- na Group paid less than half the amount owed to have conditions imposed on several parcels of public land in its possession lift- ed. Fortina paid €8.1 million but a valuation report kept hidden by former Lands Authority chair Lino Farrugia Sacco, now de- ceased, put the valuation at more than double the amount paid. The deal was signed in 2019 after parliament approved a pro- posal put forward by Borg, who was then lands minister. The Opposition had voted against. In his comments to Times of Malta on Tuesday, Borg said he will be asking the auditor gener- al to provide the parliamentary committee with the documenta- tion that had been kept hidden. "We MPs are not there to protect those who hid the doc- uments from the minister, the parliamentary secretary, and parliament. We are there to de- fend the people," he said. Borg said he will also ask the auditor general to provide the committee with a separate val- uation commissioned by the NAO as part of its probe. "I will also ask him to present the other report he commis- sioned to verify the value of the land. Then we should enter this discussion with an open mind and ensure that every cent owed to the people is paid," Borg said. Damning findings The NAO investigation found that the price tag of €8.1 million was based on a vitiated process when architects appointed by the Lands Authority were given incorrect terms of reference by then CEO Carlo Mifsud. The architects were only engaged to provide a valuation of one par- cel of land when Fortina was requesting the removal of condi- tions on four parcels of land. Significantly, the NAO probe also found that a valuation re- port commissioned by the Lands Authority board of governors in March 2019 to rectify the gaps in the original valuation was kept hidden by the chair former judge Lino Farrugia Sacco, who died in 2021. This second report, which was only provided to the NAO by the audit firm, had valued the lifting of all conditions on all parcels of land at between €18 million and €23.9 million, depending on the repayment terms. Nonetheless, Farrugia Sacco kept this report hidden from the Lands Authority board, the minister and parliamentary sec- retary, and consequently also parliament. Indeed, the NAO probe found that Farrugia Sacco even lied to the board when in June 2019 he told them the valuation was still pending when the report had been in his possession since April of that same year. Another person who knew about this report was Keith Schembri, former chief of staff at the Office of the Prime Min- ister, with the NAO probe re- vealing that the audit firm was instructed to invoice the OPM rather than the Lands Authority for its work. Schembri told the NAO he could not recall what role he played in the Fortina deal and in a Facebook post on Monday de- nied any wrongdoing. A separate valuation of the lift- ing of conditions commissioned by the NAO as part of its inves- tigation put the price tag at €21 million. The Fortina Group has denied wrongdoing and said it will be evaluating the NAO report in detail before commenting pub- licly about the findings. Deputy prime minister says parliamentary committees should move one step at a time Ian Borg