Issue link: https://maltatoday.uberflip.com/i/1540142
5 maltatoday | WEDNESDAY • 8 OCTOBER 2025 NEWS Fortina: Questions raised over legitimacy of parliamentary audit committee decision THE legitimacy of a unanimous decision taken by parliament's national audit committee on the Fortina case has been called in- to question, after the committee declared that all valuations car- ried out by the National Audit Office (NAO) were either incom- plete or inconsistent with Lands Authority laws. In a statement published Tues- day, Momentum Chairperson Arnold Cassola criticised the process, saying the discussion should have taken place in par- liament's plenary session rather than being confined to the com- mittee. Cassola also alleged that two of the five committee mem- bers who participated in the de- cision had clear conflicts of inter- est which they failed to declare. "The president of this commit- tee, Minister Ian Borg, was the minister for lands when the con- cession was granted to Fortina," Cassola said. "Meanwhile, PN MP Ryan Callus, who replaced Darren Carabott for this sitting, also has a conflict of interest as he sat on the Lands Authority board of governors, which was heavily criticised in the NAO re- port." Momentum later clarified that Callus had originally voted against the Fortina concession in 2019. Cassola argued that such con- flicts undermine the credibility of the committee's work and de- prive the public of transparency. "Why was this important dis- cussion not held in parliament, where all MPs could participate and vote?" he asked. The comments come three weeks after the Nationalist Party parliamentary group decided not to pursue legal action to rescind the Fortina concession. Only the attorney general, the state advo- cate, or a sitting MP could have initiated such a move. The PN has not publicly explained its de- cision. Cassola drew parallels with the Fort Chambray case, saying that once again parliament was being "deprived of an open discussion and vote". He urged that all fu- ture debates on such sensitive matters be held in full parliamen- tary sittings, with MPs required to declare any potential conflicts of interest before voting. "Transparency and accounta- bility demand that decisions of this scale be made in the open, not behind closed doors," Casso- la said. NICOLE MEILAK nmeilak@mediatoday.com.mt Momentum is questioning the legitimacy of a parliament committee's decision on valuations connected to the Fortina deal (Photo: James Bianchi/MaltaToday)