Issue link: https://maltatoday.uberflip.com/i/630594
14 SO, after reading the NAO report, can he personally state that an act of corruption has taken place in- side the GPD? "You cannot come to any other conclusion. Simon Busuttil is right in saying that the hallmark of this government is corruption. You have the issue of the thou- sands of visas that were issued for example. And this is not even the first case at the Lands Department – there was the Café Premier bail- out. The question I ask is that, if Falzon has resigned on this case, what should have Muscat done on the Premier scandal?" Azzopardi says of the €4.3 million bailout that was unilaterally negotiated at the Office of the Prime Minister with a private entrepreneur who owed money to the State. "The Gaffarena expropriations were taking place at around the same time, February 2015, when the NAO had just published its audit of the Café Premier rescis- sion of the unpaid lease. Muscat said at the time the government had committed a genuine mistake, that they were still learning… at the same time, a new scandal was brewing, again under Muscat's nose. To err is human, and I re- main convinced the Café Premier bailout was a pre-electoral deal, but to persist in error is certainly diabolical," Azzopardi says. In its report, the NAO gave no quarter to Falzon's negligence in stopping what should have been viewed as a highly irregular expro- priation meant to enrich Marco Gaffarena overnight – language that Falzon himself is protesting against, claiming the NAO is al- most sounding like the Opposi- tion leader himself in a bid to po- litically manipulate the outcome. "To me the language is unprec- edented," Azzopardi concurs, but only up to the level of the grave shortcomings the NAO revealed. "All it had to say was that this is some Mafioso soap opera. A chapter in itself is dedicated to 'the elusive public purpose' and there he comes down like a ton of bricks, with trenchant criticism, and lists eight reasons why there is a suspicion of collusion." And yet Azzopardi, whose dogged shadowing of the home af- fairs and justice ministries turned him into one of the PN's most visible of political animals, seems unwilling to lay the fault directly at Falzon's feet. "The NAO said he faithfully referred to the estate director's statement that the property could be expropriated for public pur- poses. The NAO points out the failure of the politicians to make a verification on this case. How can an outlay of millions not be verified? Falzon had to ask the PM whether there were plans for a new ministry building in Val- letta or the culture minister about a possible museum. Even in my time, I had refused an expropria- tion that had no public purpose. "What Falzon should have done when Gaffarena 'instigated' the expropriation, as the NAO de- scribed it, was to send him pack- ing. For me it is inexplicable and unjustifiable behaviour – and the NAO say this was atypical, the first case where someone de- mands their property be expro- priated." Even more serious could be the criminal implications of a probe by the Attorney General, given that the government lands trans- ferred to Gaffarena were seriously undervalued by architect Joseph H. Spiteri, while the value of the Old Mint Street palazzo Gaffarena partly owned was over-valued. In the ensuing €1.65 million payout in cash and lands, it was the Com- missioner of Lands Peter Mamo who pointed out he had reserva- tions and would not endorse the GPD's directives. Azzopardi recounts having chal- lenged Falzon on TV as to why, if he truly believed Old Mint Street was a historical building, he did not apply the legally-set valua- tion for such historical buildings, which ultimately set lower values in favour of government expro- priations. "He had no answer for me. And now the NAO says that applying this historical valuation would have resulted in less of a disbursement since the open market value would have been adjust- ed," Azzopar- di says, as he fires off from a copy of the NAO report s m o t h e r e d in notes and u n d e r l i n e d paragraphs of incriminating revelations. So Falzon was lying… "Again I'm not in a position to say that," Azzopardi says. "He was certainly not atten- tive enough of what some people told him; and that he had a per- son of trust [Clint Scerri, custom- er care aide] who was introducing Gaffarena to certain people at GPD. Unthinkable. In my case I never met someone to do expro- priation," he says, a former minis- ter of lands who is no stranger to controversy. "Irrespective of his bluster, Joseph Muscat has feet of clay and he does not have the moral au- thority to take the necessary de- cisions. He has countenanced so many abuses with so many min- isters, that he is compromised. When the NAO report was pub- lished, there was no way out. If he had asked Falzon to resign before, his minister would have told him, 'are you going to make me resign – you who negotiated the Café Premier bailout on your Gmail account?'." Azzopardi is convinced that Labour's economic successes, once so important to the succes- sive Nationalist administrations to win back power consecutively, will not be enough to rein in a disillusioned electorate. He says good governance can win back the government for the PN. "Especially with switchers. We're seeing it in home visits. People's tolerance has been bro- ken. They are feeling a sense of revulsion, they are disgusted. And we're projecting ourselves as an alternative government with pro- posals on the environment, good governance and the economy." Azzopardi says that with the political class now suffering an ebb in trust, Simon Busuttil has clawed back over 20,000 votes in the last two years. "I think the govern- ment made a mistake just concentrating on the economy, which Interview By Matthew Vella maltatoday, SUNDAY, 24 JANUARY 2016 Compromised lands What Falzon should have done when Gaffarena 'instigated' the expropriation, as the NAO described it, was to send him packing ON MICHAEL FALZON All it had to say was that this is some Mafioso soap opera. The NAO comes down like a ton of bricks, with trenchant criticism THE NAO REPORT