Issue link: https://maltatoday.uberflip.com/i/959046
maltatoday WEDNESDAY 28 MARCH 2018 News 4 CONTINUED FROM PAGE 1 Gaffarena made a profit of €685,000 in less than two months, apart from acquir- ing parcels of land in exchange equivalent to the size of more than 10 football pitches. The Prime Minister's court ap- plication followed the resigna- tion of parliamentary secretary Michael Falzon, after an Auditor General's report said he did not safeguard the public interest in the expropriation deals. As expected, both the Labour and the Nationalist Party tried to take credit for the court suc- cess, despite the story having been broken by The Times back in 2015. "The Prime Minister's civil case was filed so that he could defend the Maltese people's in- terest after the NAO report, and the court has proved him right." But after resigning on the strength of the NAO report, Michael Falzon was reinstated as family and social solidarity minister after Labour won re- election in 2017. "The court decision has put paid to the criticism of the Na- tionalist Party which had spoken against this case, even dubbing it a 'game' and mocking the Prime Minister for 'filing a case against himself," Labour said. Indeed, Nationalist MP Jason Azzopardi, then as shadow min- ister for justice, had described the action as "a case filed by the Prime Minister against himself in a ruse to persuade the public that he believes in good govern- ance." The case was filed nine months after The Times broke the story in 2015, having prompted two investigations by the National Audit Office and the Prime Min- ister's Internal Audit and Inves- tigations Department. "Any MP could have filed the case," Labour said in their state- ment. "This case shows that beyond the political spin, our country is based on the rule of law and the Prime Minister took the necessary legal steps to de- fend the national interest." On his part, the PN's spokes- person for good governance Si- mon Busuttil said that the public had emerged the victor in the court decision by Judge Anna Felice. "The PN has shown itself to be the voice of the people. The Old Mint Street scandal is one of sev- eral where the Muscat adminis- tration has transferred public property for nothing, such as the Zonqor land, the Café Premier, and three public hospitals," Bu- suttil said. "The Old Mint deal took place inside Castille right under Mus- cat's nose, so much so that the Auditor General had found the direct involvement of the Prime Minister's parliamentary secre- tary. Now the PN is expecting Muscat to join Adrian Delia in his case to recover the three hos- pitals passed on to Vitals Global Healthcare." The Prime Minister's internal audit and investigations depart- ment (IAID) found discrepan- cies in the valuations of lands transferred to Mark Gaffarena, revealing the ease with which the property developer simply 'requested' an expropriation and was then personally accompa- nied by Michael Falzon's aide to the Government Property De- partment (GPD). In both expropriations of Gaf- farena's two 25% shares of the Old Mint Street palazzo hous- ing government offices, the GPD committed the irregularity of expropriating only his shares – and not the 50% share of the building from all co-owners. When Gaffarena requested that his 25% share be exchanged for land at Tal-Handaq in Qormi and at Hal Mula, of which he was already the agricultural lease- holder, Michael Falzon directed him to deal with the matter at the GPD. But director-general Raymond Camilleri told the IAID that since being appointed chief in 2013, it was "the first case when a citizen approached the GPD to have his property expropriated. However, there is nothing in the law that prohibits such an expro- priation." It is usually the government that first publishes the expropri- ation in the government gazette, and then the owner comes along to either accept the price, or con- test the valuation of the land in the Land Arbitration Board; compensation can be made in exchange with other govern- ment property. The Gaffarena land valuations were carried out at breakneck speed between August and No- vember 2014, and then again in February 2015. The case for ex- propriation was not even detailed. One top official, Commissioner of Land Peter Mamo refused to endorse the payment of €377,500 in cash to Gaffarena because he felt the €822,500 compensation on the second expropriation was "a relatively high amount of money… the payment of the difference of €377,500 from the GPD acquisition fund required prior sanctioning before further action." This minute was however ap- proved by Michael Falzon that same day, 12 March 2015. "Given that the person we are expropri- ating from is the same person to whom we are transferring land in exchange, and given also that amounts fall within the bracket stipulated by law, we may pro- ceed accordingly." Mamo later endorsed Falzon's approval when the file was re- ferred back to him. The legal basis to recoup the lands The IAID found that the Gov- ernment Property Department (GPD) failed in promoting the profitable use of government property when it gave Gaffarena €1.65 million in a cash-and-land compensation in two expropria- tion processes for his two, quar- ter-shares of 36, Old Mint Street, Valetta – a palazzo housing the BICC government offices. The IAID found that the value of government land transferred to Gaffarena – namely €683,000 for the January expropriation and €445,000 in the April expro- priation – was in excess of a 30% ceiling set out in the Disposal of Government Land Act. There was no formal policy in place when it came to appoint- ing architect Joseph Spiteri to value the lands. The IAID found a lack of rotation when it came to outsourced architects. "Prop- erty valuations are considered as highly sensitive and consequent- ly rotation of architects deserves immediate attention." As an example, the IAID said Spiteri valued the Old Mint Street building, of 445 square metres at €3.29 million when another architect had valued the Old University building in St Paul's Street in Valletta, with a footprint of 2,100 square metres, at €3.3 million. The IAID found that in two separate valuations he made of a 12,000sq.m site in Siggiewi in January and August, Spiteri ap- preciated the original €123,000 value to €210,000, claiming this was "fair appreciation". And as for Gaffarena's two sites in Bahar ic-Caghaq, Spiteri first valued in November 2014 the 3,437sq.m parcel at €250,000 (€72.74/sq.m), and an additional 298sq.m at €10,000 (€33.56/ sq.m) in December 2014. Then, in the second expropriation, the adjacent site of 1,663sq.m was valued at €42.09/sq.m – a total of €70,000. Additionally, in all valuations for Gaffarena's six properties, the "marriage value" – the stra- tegic value of the property – was not taken into consideration. mvella@mediatoday.com.mt Labour, PN claim credit for court success PAUL COCKS THE right legislation pushing for am- bitious targets reducing CO 2 emis- sions for passenger cars and light commercial vehicles will get manufac- turers moving on the right targets for an effective emission standard across the European Union, experts have ar- gued. "Competitiveness of the industry depends on the cost-effectiveness by which manufacturers can produce cars in the European market. A strin- gent legislation can set the tone and path for the European industry, guid- ing the market where it needs to go," according to Richard Smokers, from research organisation TNO. Smokers was among a panel of ex- perts addressing a workshop organ- ised by the European Parliament's environment committee, chaired by MEP Miriam Dalli, discussing the CO 2 emission targets for cars and vans post-2020. "Not being a front runner in the CO legislation will make the European market less competitive," Smokers in- sisted. With the European Union lagging in its commitments under the Paris Agreement, the biggest potential to substantially reduce greenhouse gas emissions – and achieve immediate results – is by addressing road trans- port. "In fact, cars and vans are respon- sible for approximately 16% of all EU greenhouse gas emissions. Past ex- perience shows that we must keep on having stringent EU legislation, as it's been proven that voluntary emissions reduction agreements do not deliver," Dalli, the EP's rapporteur on this leg- islative file, said. "We need enforceable EU targets in- stead." Dalli said that the transport sector has to contribute to the overall green- house gas emission reduction goals in the EU. More specifically, she referred to the 60% reduction of CO emis- sions in transport by 2050 and the 30% GHG emissions reduction under the effort sharing regulation by 2030. "By reducing CO emissions from all new cars sold in Europe, these stand- ards have a significant role in con- tributing to the reduction of pollut- ant emissions and mitigating climate change. Furthermore, it will deliver fuel savings for consumers," the PL MEP said. Studies conducted by TNO showed that, whilst higher manufacturing costs translate in higher vehicle pric- es for end-users, these are more than compensated by fuel cost savings. The same was reported for vans. The panelists argued that higher manufac- turing costs are "more than compen- sated" by energy cost savings over the entire vehicle lifetime, with overall even higher net cost savings for end users. Further studies have shown that there are societal cost benefits in switching to low-emission and zero- emission vehicles. Peter Mock, from the International Council on Clean Transportation (ICCT) Europe, said that there were different levels of benefits to be en- joyed by consumers. These included the direct benefit where consumers would be paying less for fuel; and in- direct whereby money which usually f low out of the EU in the procurement of oil would now be spent within the bloc. Other indirect benefits include cleaner air and impact on health. The pressing question from the workshop was, however, whether the EU market was ready to make the jump to cleaner vehicles. According to the experts, neither technology nor the cost of production were an issue. "I would argue that one of the rea- sonable arguments is that we have an issue with infrastructure. We need ad- equate infrastructure and to incentiv- ise consumers to switch to, and trust, electric vehicles," Mock said. pcocks@mediatoday.com.mt The right laws will get car industry moving on CO2 targets, experts agree