‘Michael Falzon signed Gaffarena deal’

The government yesterday confirmed that it was Michael Falzon, Parliamentary Secretary within the Office of the Prime Minister, who gave the final go-ahead for the Gaffarena deal over a Valletta property.

However, the government said he had followed the advice of the Land Department on the valuations made by architects that had been used by the previous administration on such matters.

The government was replying to a challenge made earlier by the Nationalist Party, which called on the Prime Minister to reveal who signed off the controversial expropriation deal. The government said Dr Falzon made it clear the department should proceed only if all was in line with the law.

The valuations, it said, were made by a senior architect, who also served under the PN administration and is a department head at the University of Malta.

It is pathetic that Dr Falzon should be trying to place the blame on architects

Reacting later, the Opposition said it was clear the Prime Minister was putting pressure on Dr Falzon to be answerable for the scandal even though it was Joseph Muscat who was responsible for the department.

It was also “pathetic” and “inconceivable” that Dr Falzon should be trying to place the blame on architects. He well knew, the Opposition said, that it was not an architect who had made the decisions to buy and negotiate on the property in Old Mint Street and decide which pieces of land should be given in exchange.

It called on the government to publish all the documents associated with this scandal, adding that Dr Muscat was the one who should answer for his actions as the politician responsible for the department.

Earlier in the day, pressure had continued to mount over the deal, in which Mr Gaffarena obtained cash and land for selling half the Valletta property to government.

Addressing a press conference in the Ħandaq area, Qormi, where the government transferred some 10 tumoli of land to Mr Gaffarena, PN spokesman Ryan Callus said that according to law, the deal had to be signed off by a politician. He said that if it was not the Prime Minister himself who had negotiated this “scandal, as was the case of the Café Premier”, Dr Muscat was duty bound to say who it was.

“If it’s not [Joseph] Muscat, the Prime Minister needs to have the courage and tell the electorate which politician in his Cabinet signed off this scandalous deal,” Mr Callus said.

Times of Malta showed yesterday that the two land parcels at Ħandaq given to Mr Gaffarena sit a stone’s throw away from an entertainment complex, taċ-Ċavett, that he owns nearby. The complex has no planning permit and Mr Gaffarena has been squatting on the land.

Taċ-Ċavett was also transferred to Mr Gaffarena as part of the deal.

Shadow Justice Minister Jason Azzopardi said serious allegations of corruption were becoming clearer by the day.

He said the Qormi land “happened to be” adjacent to Mr Gaffarena’s illegal entertainment complex and was valued as agricultural land: “It is obvious this is not agricultural land for Mr Gaffarena. It seems he was given the right to pick and choose what public land he wanted to have.”