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€1.20 maltatoday YOUR FIRST READ AND FIRST CLICK OF THE DAY WWW.MALTATODAY.COM.MT SIMONE MIZZI INTERVIEWED • PAGES 12-13 SUNDAY • 24 NOVEMBER 2013 • ISSUE 733 • PUBLISHED EVERY WEDNESDAY AND SUNDAY Nationalist administration brokered €4.3 million land swap with Fekruna Bay restaurateur to be able to remove environmental eyesore just days before Malta went to polls €4.3 million expropriation deal on eve of election a complicated one that had taken months. "I have nothing to hide on this matter. In fact I invite you to look at the file of this case which includes all documents and reports related to the valuation of the land in question." Azzopardi said that the government had take a decision to remove the eyesore constituted by the derelict structures of the Mare d'Oro restaurant. "The only way to remove that eyesore and stop any future development from taking place was by expropriating it. And the only way we could expropriate the land was by offering compensation to the owners with either money, or land which had a similar value," Azzopardi said. He also specified that the initiative to reclaim Fekruna Bay for the public was initiated by another ministry. Azzopardi acknowledged that the land had been valued on the potential development that was allowable under local plans, that were in fact penned and sanctioned under successive Nationalist administrations. Jason Azzopardi: nothing to hide on Fekruna Bay compensation JAMES DEBONO DESPITE owing over €80 million in compensation to landowners whose lands were expropriated by the state, a restaurateur was awarded a €4.3 million land swap in a compensation deal brokered just four days before the 2013 general elections. The former Nationalist government gave Raymond Vella, owner of the now-demolished Mare d'Oro restaurant in Fekruna Bay, Xemxija, over 5,6000 square metres of land in Wied Ghollieq in San Gwann and Ta' Xghajrat in Swieqi, valued at €4.3 million. The 1,443 square metres of land in Fekruna Bay were valued at €4.9 million on the basis of the sort of development permitted under the local plan approved by the Nationalist government in 2006, which foresaw a "leisure coastal facility" and residential units built on the same area. Former parliamentary secretary for lands, now Nationalist MP, Jason Azzopardi confirmed that the deal was struck days before the March 2013 election because the process to find land at a similar value had been Download the MaltaToday App now Millions of euros wasted: the Mater Dei nightmare "What is distressing of the state of play is that there is no rational reason of why Malta's health system – with MDH, currently, the kernel of such a system – is in the level of disarray that it is." This is how John Dalli prefaces a report into the mismanagement of the €600 million Mater Dei Hospital commissioned by the health ministry earlier in the year. Dalli reveals that Mater Dei has no effective control to manage yearly hospital operating costs amounting to €230 million; no control over consumption of pharmaceuticals (€14m) and medical supplies (€20m) leading to waste and 'out-of-stock' situation, and yearly overtime and allowances amount to €37m; and medical equipment of €110 m i l l ion against inventory records of €67 million. Dalli says there are months' worth of medicinal stock in various government pharmaceutical stores that include excess inventory. "Yet, we still run out [and] end up with many thousands of euros worth of expired inventories." He blamed government bureaucracy for such problems, such as a purchase requisition taking up to 18 months to get approved. In an example, he explained how when a supplier is late in his delivery of an order, a tender is issued to bridge the expected medicine gap. Suppliers are asked to quote for this urgent supply, and amongst the tenderers is the late supplier. "The late supplier who knows the prices quotes a cheaper price. Being the cheapest tender the late supplier gets the contract." SEE PAGES 8-9 Continues pages 4-5 Y TODA INSIDE YOUR FREE COPY OF HEALTH & FITNESS MAGAZINE s TODAY 'Outdated' Constitution doesn't guarantee minimum wage Law professor's gripe over 1964 Constitution and need to overhaul supreme law DANIEL MIZZI MALTA'S Constitution is not giving its citizens the rights they deserve, but merely enunciating 'principles', according to the University of Malta's professor of history of law Raymond Mangion. In a speech for law graduates earlier this week, Mangion complained about the "archaic" language of the 1964 Independence Constitution, and how several of its alleged rights could be easily removed by an absolute majority in the House of Representatives. He took the opportunity to tell MPs to "roll up their sleeves" and carry out a "badly needed" overhaul of the Constitution. Mangion pointed out how the social and economic rights outlined in the Constitution, do not even mention the right to a minimum wage for workers. "Despite calls by trade unions for the law to guarantee a respectable wage rate, the Constitution gives the impression that it is not familiar with the concept." Continues page 10 Newspaper post He alth&Fitnessalth&Fitnes He