Issue link: https://maltatoday.uberflip.com/i/229731
2 News maltatoday, WEDNESDAY, 18 DECEMBER 2013 Australia Hall repossession debated JURGEN BALZAN Neatly wrapped: PN youth organ MZPN said Labour was 'gifted' a multi-million euro property THE Public Accounts Committee held a second meeting yesterday over the controversial decisions by the Attorney General and Lands Commissioner to drop a case against the Labour Party to requisition over a number of properties in Pembroke. Appearing before the parliamentary select committee, chaired by Nationalist MP Tonio Fenech, Albert Mamo, the former commissioner of lands between 2000 and 2012 said that when the department initiated legal proceedings against the Labour Party in 2010, this was on the order of the director-general, acting upon the policy set by former lands minister Jason Azzopardi. In 1979 three government properties were transferred to the Labour Party in exchange for the Freedom Press premises in Marsa, which had been annexed to the governmentowned Malta Shipbuilding. Mamo said the contract stipulated that these properties had to be kept in a good state and that an annual ground rent is paid. However Mamo said that in 2010, The Perfect Gift this Christmas experts had confirmed that the three properties were now in a derelict state. Asked whether the Lands Department had sought legal advice before the Commissioner initiated a case against the Labour Party to reclaim ownership, Mamo said his department did not deal with the legal aspect "but only looked at the contractual obligations and whether these were upheld". The department filed the case after claiming that Labour left the properties, including the historical building Australia Hall, to deteriorate, breaching contractual conditions stipulated when the land was transferred to the party in 1979. This year however, the AG and the Commissioner for Lands informed the courts that the case against Labour leader Joseph Muscat, to reclaim ownership of properties following breach of contract, would be dropped. PAC chairman Tonio Fenech said that the original contract showed that the Labour Party was given three properties covering 14,000 square metres in Pembroke and a property in Marsa, currently housing the party's television station, in exchange for properties that in total amounted 8,000 square metres. Oil bribes: Mal An annual subscription to the Maltatoday digital edition and a free book only €50.00 Minister says he was legally bound by professional secrecy not to divulge confidential information when in 2010 he was employed to seek settlement with George Farrugia on behalf of Powerplan, but PN says minister must shoulder political responsibility MIRIAM DALLI Subscribe now at www.maltatoday.com.mt/en/maltatodayepaper For more information call 21382741 ext. 113 or email subscriptions@mediatoday.com.mt HOME Affairs Minister Manuel Mallia has defended himself from accusations by the Opposition that he was privy to allegations of kickbacks in the sale of fuel to Enemalta, during his time as a lawyer for Powerplan Ltd. Mallia was employed by the company to secure a settlement from George Farrugia, who managed family business Powerplan, after he was accused by his brothers of siphoning funds in oil commissions from Trafigura and TOTSA, among others, and into his personal company Aikon Ltd. Farrugia has turned state's evidence after being granted a presidential pardon in February 2013 to cooperate in a criminal investigation on the bribery inside Enemalta on the supply of oil. But Mallia yesterday said that divulging any information he had ob-