Issue link: https://maltatoday.uberflip.com/i/554768
6 maltatoday, WEDNESDAY, 12 AUGUST 2015 News 'Prime Minister forces ministers to lie for Gaffarena' – Azzopardi PN wants Joseph Muscat to take action on home affairs minister Carmelo Abela for denying in parliament that government sought expropriation of Valletta palazzo housing police station, in favour of Marco Gaffarena MIRIAM DALLI THE Nationalist Party has de- manded that the Prime Minis- ter take immediate action over what it claimed were "lies" by home affairs minister Carmelo Abela, who in parliament denied that the government intended acquiring Palazzo Verdelin. The historic Valletta building, currently housing the Valletta police station, was apparently in the crosshairs of property entrepreneur Marco Gaffarena, who has already benefited from a controversial €1.65 million compensation from the State to have his half-ownership of an- other Valletta property expro- priated. The Gaffarena expropriation is currently under investigation by the Prime Minister's internal audit and investigations depart- ment (IAID). Gaffarena was reported to have been in private talks with the owners of Verdelin, to ac- quire the building in a bid to demand another handsome pay-off once the government expropriates the building for its own continued use. "Joseph Muscat is not only an ally of Gaffarena. He defends him and makes his ministers lie on his behalf to defend Gaffare- na. If Muscat takes no action on Abela, it confirms he is the mind behind Gaffarena's filth." In a reply to shadow minister Jason Azzopardi in the House of Representatives, Abela had denied the government's inten- tion to acquire Palazzo Verde- lin. But emails reported in the Times of Malta show that the permanent secretary asked for political guidance on the acqui- sition. "He would not have lied had he not been doing something that is wrong," Azzopardi said. "And Muscat takes no action on corruption because he had been himself behind the Café Pre- mier buy-out." In 2014, Muscat green-lit a controversial €4.3 million ' bail- out' to the leaseholders of Val- letta's Café Premier, who were unable to pay their dues to the state. The buy-out, conditional on the repayment of taxes and outstanding ground rent to the state, ensured the restitution of the property to the State but controversially paid the own- ers enough cash to pay off their private debts with the banks, namely a €2 million loan. PN links with Gaffarena Azzopardi defended MP and PN deputy leader Beppe Fenech Adami's working relationship with the Gaffarenas, insisting that it went back to before the PN deputy leader was elected to parliament. Azzopardi reiterated that the Gaffarena family turned to the Labour Party when it failed to get what it wanted from the Na- tionalist Party, namely a MEPA permit to sanction illegalities at their Qormi petrol station in order to legalize his pump. The permit was not issued thanks to then MEPA chairman Austin Walker's casting vote. Both Labour and PN represent- atives – MPs Roderick Galdes and Joseph Farrugia (the latter no longer in parliament) – who sat on the MEPA board, had voted in favour. The shadow justice minister would not comment on the old ties between the PN and Gaf- farrena, saying that he was not priv y to that information. On Sunday, MaltaToday re- vealed that former PN secre- tary-general Joe Saliba had acquired property in Paceville jointly with Joseph Gaffarena. "I'm not priv y to that infor- mation and all I know is what emerges from reports in the media," Azzopardi said, adding that it was "tragic that so many scandals had evolved in such a short time under the Labour government". Azzopardi said he "didn't ex- clude" that people had lost their trust in the political class as evidence of close ties between businessmen and politicians emerge. "That is why we have to fight for clean politics," Azzop- ardi said. The former lands minister said he would find no problem if the government were to launch an investigation to uncover wheth- er certain individuals had been facilitated during changes to development boundaries before 2008. "I am always in favour of the truth. The PN under Simon Busuttil wants politics based on honesty and truth." Shadow justice minister Jason Azzopardi (left) outside Palazzo Verdelin Political parties 'shouldn't hijack' constitutional reform debate, Muscat says Committee for the promotion of the Constitution meets Prime Minister Joseph Muscat at Auberge de Castille MIRIAM DALLI THE discussion on changes to the Constitution "should not be hijacked by political parties", Prime Minister Joseph Muscat has warned, arguing that this was an opportunity for civil society to discuss important changes and raise questions on controversial matters. "I don't think you should hold back from being controversial and raise questions on the rel- evance of what was written dec- ades ago, in a different time and historical context," Muscat told the committee for the promotion of the Constitution chaired by Franco Debono. Muscat said that the commit- tee should be a sounding board for open-minded people to say what they think while politicians shouldn't draw the line on what should be discussed. "It is us politicians who should fall into place," he said, adding that he was eager to see what would be raised on work, rights and duties, liberties and foreign affairs. The committee's work, which is also serving as a means to pro- mote and educate about Malta's Constitution, will lead to a consti- tutional convention – a meeting convened for the purpose of writ- ing a new constitution or revising the existing one. It was Labour's electoral pledge to enact a reform intended to give birth to what Muscat described as the "Second Republic". In his introductory comments, Debono said that the committee's deliberations should include on- going discussions such as changes to the Maltese language and par- liamentary autonomy. Interconnector failure caused by lightning during severe storm in Sicily AN inquiry carried out into last week's disruption of the intercon- nector has concluded that it was the caused by lightning that struck parts of the Sicilian network infra- structure. A joint statement was issued by Terne Rete Italia and Enemalta plc on the conclusions of the initial analysis of the electricity supply dis- ruption in Malta on 6 August. "Engineers of the two Companies have confirmed that the interrup- tion initiated at 1638hrs during a se- vere storm in Sicily, when lightning struck parts of the Sicilian network infrastructure," Enemalta said in a statement. "The protection systems at the Malta-Italy Interconnector's Maghtab Terminal Station dis- connected the electricity supply to prevent damage to the Maltese network. This triggered the auto- matic load shedding system on the Maltese grid, disrupting supply to several localities, to avoid a total shutdown in Malta." Soon after the incident, Enemalta's Network Control Room contacted Terna's Control Centre to confirm that the Sicilian network was stable, so that the two grids could be syn- chronised once again. In the meantime, Enemalta also operated its backup generation ca- pacity at the Delimara Power Sta- tion to reduce restoration time. At 1820hrs, power started flowing through the interconnector and supply to all localities affected was restored by 1842hrs. Enemalta and Terna thanked their engineers and technicians for their commitment and diligence in re- sponse to this incident and in the overall operation of the Malta-Italy Interconnector. Franco Debono and members of the Committee for the Promotion of the Constitution, at yesterday's meeting Lightning disabled the interconnector link