ADPD has called for an investigation into claims that EU funds were allocated to family members of Labour ministers.
In a press conference on Saturday, the green party’s chair Sandra Gauci said that the allocation of such funds to family members of ministers raises questions as to whether these were granted based on merit or as a result of political influence and family connections.
The request comes after The Shift reported that relatives of Agriculture Minister Anton Refalo and former Labour deputy leader and MEP Louis Grech were awarded six-figure EU funding sums each.
Michelina Refalo, Anton Refalo’s wife, acquired some €270,000 in EU funds to develop a yoga retreat in an ODZ Qala property, the news outlet said.
They separately reported that a company owned by Louis Grech’s three children - Xandru Grech, Louisa Grech and Francesca Berger - was allocated €450,000 in EU funds to finance a boutique hotel project in Sliema.
In both cases, the funds can cover up to 80 per cent of project costs.
On Saturday, Sandra Gauci said that it was important to make sure that EU funds are allocated judiciously, particularly at a time when many are struggling to cope with the cost of living crisis and an impending energy crisis on the horizon.
She said that the fact that EU funds were allocated to a company owned by a minister’s wife calls for careful investigation.
ADPD's chair Sandra Gauci and secretary general Ralph Cassar at Saturday's press conference. Photo: ADPD“The most disturbing aspect of this revelation is the apparent conflict of interest. Despite not being directly associated with the application or the company receiving the funds, Minister Refalo's connection to the property is undeniable, as it is listed in his asset declaration,” she said.
“This raises legitimate questions about whether the funds were awarded on merit or as a result of political influence.”
The same, she added, applied to the funding awarded to Grech’s children.
“The application for these funds was made when Grech was still an MEP and was finalized in 2017. This amount was given when this scheme was controlled by the Maltese government and until now this project is still in its early phases,” she said.
“We are concerned about all this and we ask that a serious investigation be carried out on how these funds were given, and whether there was abuse in the allocation as well as whether insiders and family members were unfairly rewarded.”
“These reasonable suspicions clearly show how far we are still from a country run on merit where everyone has an equal chance depending on their abilities,” Gauci concluded.
ADPD Secretary General and MEP candidate Ralph Cassar said that Malta’s ascension to the European Union saw many citizens looking forward to a country that moves towards merit based-decisions.
“While with a lot of hard work including a referendum and battles of civil society as well as ours as a party we managed to acquire some of the civil rights, as a nation we seem to have become experts in how to acquire funds even when these are the result of a conflict of interest and abuse,” he said.
He said that to date The European Public Prosecutor's Office has opened 14 fraud cases against Malta over the misuse of EU funds to the tune of €123.5 million, which does not bode well for Malta's reputation.