Issue link: https://maltatoday.uberflip.com/i/630594
maltatoday, SUNDAY, 24 JANUARY 2016 6 News Joe Cassar resigned as Nationalist MP after MaltaToday revealed that Joe Gaffarena financed works in his Dingli home, without the former minister having declared the gift. Joe Gaffarena is in business with former Labour parliamentary secretary Louis Buhagiar in private healthcare and elderly home care. Labour MP Charles Buhagiar had rendered architectural services to Joe Gaffarena on MEPA planning applications, and is also the chairman of the BICC, whose offices are house at 36, Old Mint Street - the Valletta palazzo of which Marco Gaffarena owned a 50% share. Labour MP Joe M. Sammut was formerly a director, with Marco Gaffarena, of importers International Tobacco (Malta) Limited. The association is no longer. Former PN secretary-general Joe Saliba was involved in the acquisition and sale of a Paceville apartment block Former Nationalist minister John Dalli was a consultant to Joe Gaffarena between 1996 and 1998 on his car import business, which later went bankrupt amid allegations of misappropriation. Dalli's brother Sebastian was also in business with Gaffarena With former police chief Ray Zammit and his two sons Daniel and Roderick, for some time Joe Gaffarena was in business with the family of police officers to open an old people's home. Daniel Zammit was one of the prosecuting inspectors in the murder charges filed against Joe Gaffarena's former son-in-law. Michael Falzon resigned from parliamentary secretary for lands after two damning IAID and NAO reports accusing him of not seeking the government's best interestover the expropriation of Marco Gaffarena's 50% share in a Valletta palazzo Tentacles of Gaffarena The Gaffarena family have forged various business relationships with members of the political class on boths sides of the political divide Father and son: Joe and Marco Gaffarena CONTINUES FROM PAGE 1 "I met Auditor General [Anthony Mifsud] and his deputy [Charles Deguara] in the presence of my chief of staff, and warned him that a certain person was manipulating the investigations so as to damage the government for political reasons," Falzon told Radju Malta's Ghandi Xi Nghid programme in a telephone link. "He promised to relay my concerns to him, and yet that person remained in the same position," Falzon said. The defiant Falzon has insisted that he did not interfere in the valuations that under- valued the lands transferred to Gaffarena as part of the expropriation settlement, with Gaffarena now facing court action by the government which wants to recover the lands. "What's certain is that I did abso- lutely nothing wrong, that I didn't interfere in the land valuations, and that I conducted my work according to long-established pro- cedures." Falzon was not found to have been in- volved in negotiations with Gaffarena, al- though he held an initial meeting with him, and his aide, Clint Scerri, accompanied Gaffarena to the GPD. Both investigations by the Prime Minister's internal audit and investigations department (IAID) and the NAO determined that GPD officials worked round the clock to fast-track the expropria- tions of Gaffarena's two, undivided 25% shares of the building. "In my 22 months as parliamentary sec- retary, the doors of my office have always been open to everyone, regardless of their political affiliations. Should I have told him not to approach the Lands Department or MEPA simply because he was a well-known figure? "I'm honestly baffled why my head was placed on the chopping block, but that's politics, I suppose…" Falzon took exception to the strong lan- guage used by the NAO, which drew up a strong condemnation of the GPD for ac- commodating Gaffarena, and the parlia- mentary secretary's neglect in protecting the government's interest. Falzon accused the NAO of drawing up a foregone conclusion to force him out of office. "There are certain statements with- in the conclusion that sound identical to a speech by the leader of the Opposition," Falzon said. But the serious conclusions in the NAO report, which are under review by the At- torney General, could have serious criminal consequences, with attention now focused on senior GPD officials, underlings, as well as the architect, a university lecturer, who over-valued 36, Old Mint Street and under- valued the five lands transferred to Gaf- farena. "The NAO's understanding of collusion is secret or illegal cooperation or conspiracy in order to deceive others, with this expropria- tion being a case of senior officials and Gaf- farena secretly cooperating to the detriment of the other co-owners," the NAO said. According to the report 1. The NAO accused the GPD of having only ex- propriated Gaffarena's two 25% shares, and not the entire property. "In the case of the second share, Government timed its expropriation to co- incide with when Gaffarena acquired this share." 2. The GPD did not expropriate the entire prop- erty citing insufficient funds when funds were in fact available: the NAO said the GPD's allocated budget for expropriations in 2015 was €7.2 mil- lion, rendering it possible to acquire the entire property. "Whether government intended to in- cur such a substantial expense on one property is debatable, particularly in view of the lack of a public purpose identified in this regard." 3. The GPD only negotiated with Gaffarena and never communicated with any of the other own- ers. 4. Gaffarena offered to sell a share to the GPD that he did not own. This second share was owned by third parties who had never been contacted by the government regarding its interest in ac- quiring the property. The government's interest in this share of the Valletta property crystallised the day after Gaffarena's acquisition of it, with Michael Falzon's approval obtained a week later. 5. The GPD was aware or could easily have traced the identity of the other owners and read- ily negotiated with them too following the Presi- dent's declaration on expropriation. 6. All the valuations "render evident the fact that Gaffarena was involved in preparations undertaken with regard to the expropriation process well in advance of the President's dec- laration". It is at this point that the expropriation became public knowledge and the point at which Gaffarena should have come forward with docu- ments substantiating ownership. This sequence of events was not adhered to in this case, with Gaffarena well aware of the expropriation and identifying properties for counter-exchange in advance. 7. The elimination of the Raba ta' Harram prop- erty from the first expropriation process, due to the aggregate value of properties proposed in exchange for a share of 36, Old Mint Street ex- ceeding that permissible, indicated that Gaffare- na was aware of the values of the lands that he was to acquire. This was confirmed by Gaffarena himself. "This awareness of the values assigned to the lands, apart from supporting the understanding of collusion between Gaffarena and the GPD, in- troduced a considerable element of risk as access to such information provided an opportunity and context for the breach of the process' integrity. "The extent of the risk depended on what infor- mation Gaffarena was privy to. That Gaffarena was informed of proceedings prior to them becoming public was clear; however, the NAO could not es- tablish the extent of information at his disposal due to his failure to cooperate with this Office. The GPD's poor record keeping and the officials' dubious account of events, particularly in view of how this expropriation materialised without any coordination between those involved, further compounded this." 8. Supporting this notion that Gaffarena was well informed of what was going on was evidence provided by all GPD officials who confirmed the regular presence of Gaffarena at the GPD offices, specifically referring to various instances when he was seen in the company of the director of estate management, Carmel Chircop. Serious NAO findings allege collusion with Gaffarena