Issue link: https://maltatoday.uberflip.com/i/582103
WWW.MALTATODAY.COM.MT WEDNESDAY EDITION WEDNESDAY • 7 OCTOBER 2015 • ISSUE 436 • PUBLISHED EVERY WEDNESDAY AND SUNDAY €1.00 Newspaper post PAGE 6 Oceana Restaurant at the Hilton. Hilton Malta Hotel, Portomaso, St Julians. PTM 01. Malta Call. +356 21 383 383 www.hiltonmaltahotel.com Sunday Lunch Buffet Our chefs have paid extra attention to present a lavish buffet for all to enjoy. The popular Sunday buffet Lunch at the Oceana Restaurant is back on the 27 th September 2015. E V E R Y M O M E N T H A S A S T O R Y Adults €35 Children 6-12 €10 Compilmentary parking on first come first served basis. Hunting chief served as government consultant during referendum While heading pro-hunting referendum campaign, Lino Farrugia remained on government's payroll as hunting and trapping specialist JURGEN BALZAN HUNTERS' federation boss Lino Farrugia receives just un- der €1,000 a month for consult- ing the environment ministry on hunting and trapping, a con- sultancy which he kept during the contentious referendum on hunting earlier this year. Six months after the Labour administration said it would no longer pay the hunters' federation for consultancy, Farrugia was en- gaged on a €983.33 monthly re- tainer. Information tabled in Parlia- ment on Monday in reply to a question by opposition MP Kristy Debono shows that Far- rugia was engaged by direct or- der in January 2014. The hunters' chief has been paid €11,800 over the past 12 months, however the information tabled by Environment Minister Leo Brincat does not indicate the du- ration of his contract. The decision to keep Farrugia as a "hunting and trapping spe- cialist" during the hotly contest- ed hunting referendum is highly questionable given that he was leading the Yes campaign while consulting government. Labour leader and Prime Min- ister Joseph Muscat had claimed that the Labour Party did not help the hunting lobby, however during the campaign he boosted the hunters by showing his sup- port for spring hunting with a number of clinical pronounce- ments. Farrugia's consultancy also be- lies the parliamentary secretary responsible for hunting Roderick Galdes' previous assurances that government was in no need for consultancy by hunters. FKNK boss Lino Farrugia has been kept on as a consultant despite government's commitment to terminate hunters' consultancy contracts GO Plc majority shareholders reportedly ask banks for advice on 'full sale' of company PAGE 8 St Julian's foreshore 'deal' to be probed by Auditor General MATTHEW VELLA THE National Audit Office is to start investigating a decision by the Government Property De- partment back in 2012, to sell off a portion of public land on the St Julian's foreshore at a renegotiated or discounted price to developers who had abusively extended their apartment block. The St Julian's apartment block overlooking Spinola bay remains an eyesore to this day, having been built back in 2003, with its footprint extended on the public foreshore. But its developers benefited from a reduced price to buy up the public land they encroached upon, despite a court having or- dered the demolition of the build- ing. A source who spoke to this newspaper said the parliamen- tary secretary for lands had been requested to hand over details of the GPD's dealings with the prop- erty developers, over to the NAO. In documents obtained by this newspaper, which inquired over the 2009 court order to demol- ish the abusive apartment build- ing, MaltaToday learnt that not only were the developers allowed to retain the building that was illegally protruding onto gov- ernment land; but that the Gov- ernment Property Department's (GPD) request for a €950,000 sale of the property on government land was decreased almost by half to €525,000 paid over five years. The property owners – Vincent Farrugia of VF Group, Ernest Grech, and companies E.G. Prop- erty Holdings and El Dara – were taken to court in 2003 by the Commissioner for Lands for hav- ing abusively constructed their apartments at 83, Spinola Road, right out onto the public fore- shore on Spinola Bay. In 2006, the courts ordered Far- rugia and Grech to restore the public foreshore to its former pristine condition, a decision subsequently confirmed in 2009 by the Appeals Court and which meant that the developers would have to demolish the entire build- ing. Instead of proceeding with the court decision, in May 2010 the Commissioner of Land decided that the area that had spilled out onto the public foreshore would be offered up for sale by public tender – a lifeline for the develop- ers that meant they could legally buy up their abusive extension. PAGE 5