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MW 3 June 2015

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maltatoday, WEDNESDAY, 3 JUNE 2015 3 MATTHEW AGIUS A high-ranking government of- ficial told a court how investiga- tions into the works-for-votes al- legations at the Ministry for Gozo had been initiated on the strength of a report carried by MaltaTo- day. He was testifying in the com- pilation of evidence against An- thony Debono, an employee of the Gozo Ministry and husband of then-Gozo Minister Giovanna Debono. He has been charged with, among others, misappropri- ation, profiting from public mon- ies and private contractors, using his official capacity as a civil serv- ant to his own private advantage, rendering himself an accomplice in the falsification of public docu- ments for the issuing of payments and goods, and abusing his public role. John Borg, Permanent Secre- tary at the Ministry for Gozo, told Magistrate Neville Camilleri yesterday morning that he had alerted the Principal Permanent Secretary and the police to the allegations following the publi- cation of a report in the 8 March edition of MaltaToday. He also told the magistrate that Gozo Minister Anton Refalo had on an earlier occasion walked out of a meeting with ministry officials and Gozitan contractor- turned-whistleblower Joe Cauchi when the whistleblower started to list the works he had carried out on private properties. Borg told the court that the works-for-votes arrangement had been discussed at this meeting, held on the 17th October, where Borg and the Director of Works, Joe Portelli had met with whistle- blower Joe Cauchi. Anton Refalo had also been present at the meeting, during which Cauchi had informed them that he was owed upwards of €50,000 by the ministry for works which he had carried out. However, when Cauchi started reading out the list of works for which he was awaiting payment, Refalo walked out, saying that he no longer wished to be present at the meeting. The magistrate upheld a request by defence lawyer Joe Giglio, or- dering the Commissioner of Po- lice to provide the defence with a list of all witnesses whom they planned to summon, together with a description of what they would be testifying about. After retiring to his chambers for around 30 minutes, the mag- istrate emerged and declared that there were sufficient grounds to place Anthony Debono under a bill of indictment. The court will continue the compilation of evi- dence next week. MaltaToday had broken the "Gozoworks" story in March, an- nouncing that a Gozitan whistle- blower had revealed the existence of a scheme to perform construc- tion work, free of charge, to con- stituents and potential voters for former minister Giovanna Debo- no. The scheme had been organ- ised months before the 2013 elec- tion right up to election day. The scheme involved private Gozitan building contractors who had been commissioned by Anthony Debono to carry out ce- ment, concrete and construction works on quarries, private homes, roads and garages to constituents at no cost to them. No tenders were issued for the work carried out and neither did the contractors receive a letter of acceptance for the work done. All the material used in these works was provided by the Gozo minis- try itself, including cement, stone and metal mesh. In order to be paid, the contrac- tors would invoice the Gozo min- istry for fictitious works under other projects being carried out by the works department of the Ministry for Gozo, in which An- thony Debono was involved. News Court indicts Anthony Debono Permanent Secretary says Gozo minister Anton Refalo walked out of meeting with contractor- turned- whistleblower in October 2014 PHOTOGRAPHY BY RAY ATTARD Anthony Debono walking to court for a sitting, with his wife Giovanna (centre) Nature park boundaries changed by government Direct any questions on nature park to OPM, MEPA spokesperson tells MaltaToday JAMES DEBONO IT was the government and not the Malta Environment and Planning Authority (MEPA) which drew the boundaries of the nature park being proposed in Marsaskala in the vicinity of the proposed ODZ campus, MaltaToday has learned. A much larger nature park, which included the zone ear- marked for the American Uni- versity of Malta and other land parcels, was approved in the lo- cal plan of 2006. Although the former govern- ment never implemented the policy enacting the nature park, the designation of the Zonqor area as one, remains legally binding. This means that the proposed nature park cannot be reduced in size in the absence of an amendment to the local plan. But a downscaled version of the park which not only omits the land earmarked for the ODZ campus but awkwardly skirts around various other land par- cels, was announced last month along with the proposed ODZ development proposed for Zon- qor point. Last week MaltaToday asked MEPA to reveal which entity was responsible for establishing the new boundaries of the park. Instead of answering the ques- tions sent by this newspaper a spokesperson for MEPA yester- day invited MaltaToday to "di- rect any questions" on the pro- posed nature park to the Office of the Prime Minister. Questions sent by this news- paper to the Office of the Prime Minister yesterday remained unanswered till the time of go- ing to print. Apart from the site identified for the university, the new site map of the nature park is small- er and does not include several land parcels, which were includ- ed in map (SM1) of the approved local plan. This includes a corridor of land between the proposed new university and the nature park and another corridor between Triq Ghaxqet l-Ghajn and the downsized park. MaltaToday also asked MEPA to publish the criteria used to exclude land from the park ap- proved in 2006. MEPA has so far not an- nounced any revision of the local plan to downsize the proposed park. MEPA is legally obliged to carry out a public consultation before changing any part of a lo- cal plan. Government insists that heads of agreement will be published in due course Front Harsien ODZ calls for publication of agreement with Sadeen Group FRONT Harsien ODZ called for the immediate publica- tion of the heads of agreement signed between the govern- ment of Malta and Sadeen Construction Group, with re- gard to the development of a university campus currently being proposed outside devel- opment zones in Zonqor Mar- saskala. "The publication of this agreement is necessary because all Maltese citizens deserve to know what commitments have been gone into by their govern- ment," the Front said. Front Harsien ODZ said it supported the call for an im- mediate debate in Parliament's Committee for the Environ- ment and Development. All documents and reports connected to the project should be published and presented to this committee, to ensure full parliamentary scrutiny, it said. Prime Minister Joseph Mus- cat, Economy Minister Chris Cardona and Education Minis- ter Evarist Bartolo said that the heads of agreement – signed with Sadeen Group on 5 May – will be published "at the op- portune monument". The three were replying to questions raised by Nationalist MP Marthese Portelli. The government signed an agreement with investor Hani Salah, as CEO and chairman of the Sadeen Group, to offi- cially approve the American University. Labour MP Marlene Farrugia (pictured) attended the launch of the Front Harsien ODZ

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