Issue link: https://maltatoday.uberflip.com/i/553115
maltatoday, SUNDAY, 9 AUGUST 2015 4 News CONTINUED FROM PAGE 1 Saliba was touted for consultancy jobs in the private sector when interviewed on TVM's Dissett in June 2008 after deciding not to stand for the post of PN secretary general, which he had held for nine years. "As I've said previously, there is no secret. I have a number of positive requests and I thank everyone since I was surprised at the number of requests I've had from the private sector for consultancy work, and I have to take a final decision." Saliba's relationships with party donors have always elicited ques- tions about the party's financing and its concessions to big business. In 2007 Saliba's summer holiday was aboard business magnate Zaren Vassallo's luxury yacht, leading to surmising about the links between politicians and businessmen. The disclosure that Saliba had purchased an apartment block in Paceville with Joe Gaffarena recon- firms the public's fears that the in- volvement of the political class with businessmen – even those who have previously been in the news for flouting planning regulations – is deep-rooted and crosses the po- litical divide. Joe Gaffarena hailed from Qormi and worked closely with various Nationalist politicians, notably George Hyzler and John Dalli. Gaffarena's controversial petrol station in Qormi was granted a permit in 2006, two years before a general election. But in September 2008 it faced an enforcement order for illegal works on 80% of the con- struction. The enforcement order was issued three months after Joe Saliba stepped down from the post of secretary-general. MEPA had then said that the ap- plication for sanctioning the illegal petrol station had been refused be- cause the illegalities on site led to the further intensification of urban- isation in an outside development zone (ODZ). In 2008, the authority issued an enforcement notice on the site and sealed off access to the entrance, given that Gaffarena had gone be- yond the 2006 permit. But the J. Gaff Service Station still opened for business in summer 2009 and was again closed down by MEPA in September that year. An application was then filed to sanction the existing works, with the applicant proposing the remov- al of two stairwells linking the first floor to the ground floor. But MEPA still refused to sanction the illegal building, saying that while it had no objection to most of the alterations, the additional floor, the reduction in water reservoirs and the replace- ment of rubble walls could not be accepted. It rejected the application by eight votes to four. The refusal led to an altercation between one of the main oppo- nents to the application, Giovanni Bonello, a retired judge of the Eu- ropean Court of Human Rights, then a member on MEPA, and Joe Gaffarena. In 2011, an individual who re- ferred to himself as 'Gaffarena' as- saulted former Bonello at a St Ju- lian's restaurant for refusing to vote in favour of lifting the sanction on the petrol station. Gaffarena had denied Bonello's claims, insisting that neither he nor any of his chil- dren had ever attacked him. Under Labour in 2014 the Gaf- farena family was granted a tempo- rary clearance to reopen its petrol station in Qormi against a €500,000 bank guarantee. Gaffarena had said that his eight children had suffered "hardship" for five years due the station's closure. The former parliamentary secre- tary for planning, Michael Farru- gia, defended the decision, insisting that everyone should be given an opportunity to regularise their po- sition, and that Gaffarena had been "promised a permit before the elec- tions". The notoriety of the Gaffarenas goes back a long way. In the early 1990s, Joe Gaffarena was involved in a controversy over the location of the Daewoo car showroom in Mdina Road, Qormi which was originally built without a planning permit, as was its car storage at Hal Farrug. On the same premises, his other business Mixer Ltd was again with- out the necessary permits. The company was later sold to Bastjan Dalli, brother of former Nationalist minister John Dalli. Gaffarena later sold his shares in the Daewoo car sales agency to former ambassador Joseph Mary Scicluna. Although Gaffarena's li- cence to sell the Korean cars was due to expire and no agreement to renew it was in place, the busi- nessman received in return sev- eral properties, including the Three Rocks Hotel and a large plot of land in Bahrija and the Dacia Car Sales Agency, in addition to a cash pay- ment. But the problems Joe Gaffarena faced with the petrol station pushed him closer to the government of the day. His son Marco was known to be close to Joe Sammut, the Labour MP, and even supported his political campaign. At one point both Sam- mut and Gaffarena were directors of an international trading company, International Tobacco Malta, now in dissolution. Recent revelations of Marco Gaf- farena's controversial €1.65 million compensation from the Govern- ment Property Division for the expropriation of a Valletta palazzo housing government offices, has shocked the public. Additionally, the Gaffarena fam- ily's involvement with the family of former acting police commissioner Ray Zammit raised numerous ques- tions of conflicts of interest for the family of police officers; and former police inspector Daniel Zammit's conduct in the prosecution of Joe Gaffarena's son-in-law Stephen Caruana for murder. The links were the recent subject of an inquiry by Judge Michael Mallia. Only last week Opposition leader Simon Busuttil filed multiple libel suits against GWU organs It-Torca and l-Orizzont after the newspapers published an affidavit by Joe Gaf- farena, who claimed that as PN dep- uty leader, Busuttil in 2012 met him to discuss issuing a permit for his il- legal petrol station, in return for in- formation on former EU Commis- sioner John Dalli – who had been a business associate of Gaffarena back in the 1990s. Busuttil has denied the reports, saying that it was Gaffarena who requested that his petrol station be granted a MEPA permit, but that Busuttil refused the "indecent offer". Nothing has been said as to why MP Joe Cassar went out of his way to ar- range for the meeting to happen. MORE • Saviour Balzan's opinion PG 19 Property deal sheds light on business ties with politicians The St Francis apartments in Paceville as they stand today