Issue link: https://maltatoday.uberflip.com/i/706995
maltatoday, SUNDAY, 24 JULY 2016 11 MAT THEW VELLA THEORETICALLY speaking, a new law that will remove the politician's rubber-stamp from decisions on government land and expropriation, should pre- vent another 'Gaffarena' from happening. That fateful expropriation, a criminal waste of €1.6 million paid out to the property entre- preneur Marco Gaffarena in government lands and cash for his half-share in an Old Mint Street palazzo, became the cata- lyst for a sensational investiga- tion by the National Audit Of- fice and the resignation of lands parliamentary secretary Michael Falzon. The Prime Minister has filed a case to recoup the lands passed on to Gaffarena, and the case gave rise to a vast reform that will turn the Government Prop- erty Department into an agency, the Lands Authority. The lynchpin of the reform is strictly speaking the removal of the minister's approval of deci- sions on public land and instead, its delegation to a 10-person board of governors that will include an MP from the Oppo- sition. Crucially, apart from a chief executive officer in charge of operations, a chief audit offic- er – a sort of 'lands ombudsman' if you will – will be tasked not just with own-initiative audits but mandatory investigations of any transaction upwards of €100,000. The Opposition is uncon- vinced, saying the audit officer will be answerable – and in turn subdued by – the CEO and the board of governors. But Deborah Schembri, the new parliamen- tary secretary who took over from Falzon and was tasked with the reform that the Gaffarena scandal gave rise to, is intent on extolling the virtues of how the authority will work. "We're placing a lot of impor- tance on the role of the auditor, by introducing checks and bal- ances where these never existed inside the GPD," Schembri says. "Although the board of gover- nors will select the audit officer, s/he cannot be removed by that same board but by the House of Representatives. And where in- dependence is concerned, it is who can remove you that's more important here. "The auditor will not just flag every single investigation, but every single complaint – wheth- er or not s/he acted on it – will also be listed in an annual report s/he will present to the House of Representatives. Transparency here is key." One of the problems of the for- mer MEPA audit officer, before the role was upgraded to that of planning ombudsman, was that when he finished an inves- tigation, that inquiry would be passed on to the MEPA chair- man, which means it was not automatically published. It was only through the audit officer's own policy to pass a copy of the investigation to the complainant that these reports would see the light of day. How will the pub- lic get to know of every single report penned by the Lands Au- thority's audit officer? "Once completed the report will be presented to the board of governors as well as the minister and the Speaker of the House," Schembri says, pointing out that the role of the Opposition MP on the board should aid in increas- ing transparency – apart from the fact that an audit investiga- tion would not exclude another audit by the NAO. "We wanted to have both lay- ers of audit. An illegality would have a 'double hurdle' in the sense that a Lands audit will not exclude an investigation by the police, or the Auditor General, or the permanent commission against corruption. We wanted someone who was 'closer' to the problem, someone who could grapple with any suspect trans- action more immediately. The audit officer has the kind of leeway to accompany police on physical site inspections, such is the wide berth of investigative powers. I don't want the Lands Authority to have the bad aura it has today," Schembri says. But one of the crucial aspects of how the Gaffarena scandal un- folded, apart from the fact that Gaffarena himself was person- ally accompanied to the Lands Department by Falzon's person- al aide, Clint Scerri, to meet civil servants who seemed incapable of saying 'no', is digitising the documentation itself and gen- erating an audit trail of whoever handles these transactions and drafts instructions. Part of this project started in 2012 with the Land Estate Management Infor- mation System (LEMIS), which had to provide various databases for transactions carried out by the Lands Department. "It was a good system but it was not suitable for certain aspects of Maltese property law, such as our use of emphyteuta and leas- es. I set up an action committee to map out which parts of the LEMIS were not functioning and to sort out its bugs, and finally we have set in motion eight of 12 'modules' the system provides, and we are about to start scan- ning and digitising the docu- ments themselves. And we're starting this from scratch. "Additionally, every single document that gets accessed through the system will generate an audit trail, which means we will know who accessed which document and when," Schembri adds. This audit trail is crucial since, as the NAO report into the Gaf- farena scandal showed, hand- written minutes and directors who seemed incapable of not doing the bidding for the influ- ential Clint Scerri provided a rather archaic system of deci- sion-making and record-keep- ing. It seemed simple enough to assume that anybody brought over to the Lands Department by a member of the political secre- tariat, should be given anything their heart desires. "Everybody is scared of taking a decision," Schembri says of the GPD directors left scarred by the impact of the Gaffarena scandal. "We are trying to place safe- guards on all fronts… and give these directors peace of mind, by introducing a board of gov- ernors who will be scrutinising their work, with a lawyer, archi- tect and auditor as governors to offer a more qualitative double- check. It will not be a matter of 'here's what the minister wants, get cracking'… I want users of the Lands Authority to go there with the peace of mind that they are guaranteed a fair deal." Schembri is intent on press- ing the importance of how far- reaching the reform of the lands department will be, saying it will pave the way for further dig- itisation for users such as geo- mapped public property and a new administrative tribunal for appeals on decisions by the board of governors. "This reform is going to com- pletely change the way this de- partment works for people," Schembri says. "Take valuations of property for example" – one of the more controversial as- pects of the Gaffarena reform – "We have never had a uniform way of carrying out valuations, and as ministers, we have never been able ourselves to under- stand why an architect would have arrived to the valuation he saw fit." Schembri says that the board of governors will now be tasked to supervise such valuations, which will be carried using the residual method. "Again, further over- sight," she says. I point out that in people's minds, the department is tainted by decisions such as the €5 mil- lion expropriation of the land in Fekruna – negotiations that had been carried out well in advance, but whose final decision was tak- en just weeks before the March 2013 election; the €4.2 million Café Premier lease 'bailout'; and of course the Gaffarena scandal. What guarantees could Schem- bri give that these decisions would be totally out of political influence? "You could say that the minute these transactions happened, the audit officer would be start- ing an inquiry on them, because they exceed €100,000. Secondly, when cases such as these go up to the board of governors, you have an Opposition MP who is instantly aware of these cases," Schembri says. "So whoever tells me that this law should not be approved, I can only say that – hand on heart – this is a good law. And I don't want to see my reputation for doing things the right way, go south." News From scandal… to reform The Gaffarena scandal gave way to an overhaul of the Lands Department for the creation of a new board of governors and an audit officer. Parliamentary secretary Deborah Schembri says the reform introduces checks and balances that never existed before PHOTOGRAPHY BY RAPHAEL FARRUGIA I don't want the Lands Authority to have the bad aura it has today The minute these transactions happened, the audit officer would be starting an inquiry on them, because they exceed €100,000 Deborah Schembri