Former Labour MP Bertu Pace has been stripped of Siġġiewi’s highest award which was handed to him earlier this month despite a stalemate by councillors on the matter.
Onorifiċenza Mertu Siġġiewi is granted to citizens for having served the locality or country to the highest order and in an exemplary manner.
Earlier this year, three Siġġiewi councillors raised concern over giving the award to Pace, “a person who has been embroiled in controversy”.
In 2016, Times of Malta had reported that Pace, consultant to then agriculture parliamentary secretary Roderick Galdes, had been suspended after the police launched an investigation into a permit for his daughter for a villa outside a development zone.
A discussion by Siġġiewi local councillors in February on whether to honour Pace with the award ended with a three-three deadlock vote.
Mayor Dominic Grech did not use his casting vote to decide the matter, however, he still went ahead with presenting Pace the award on July 13.
Times of Malta contacted the director-general for local government on July 15, asking whether he would be taking any action on the matter.
Instead of replying, he sent the question to the spokesperson of the Ministry for Local Government. No replies have been received on the matter.
However, in an email seen by Times of Malta, the directorate informed the Siġġiewi council it had broken the law and it was therefore annulling the award.
'Complete disregard to directorate of local government'
When contacted, minority leader Alessia Psaila Zammit said the mayor had demonstrated “complete disregard to the direction given to him by the directorate”.
This was “unacceptable and an insult” to the locality and the council, she added.
Awarding the Onorificenza Mertu Siġġiewi to Pace, without having secured a majority vote to do so, “unmasked the real intentions” of the Labour-led council, she said.
“Not only has the mayor promoted a person who was embroiled in controversy, but Grech has been showing that he's a mayor driven solely by partisan interests,” Psaila Zammit said.