An NGO has challenged the Economy Ministry and Lands Authority to publish all of its correspondence with developers over controversial land deals. 

The challenge comes after the ministry rubbished claims made by il-Kollettiv accusing Minister Silvio Schembri of selling off land on the cheap to developers, in backroom deals. 

Times of Malta reported on Wednesday that the cabinet has approved a partial review of local plans in St George's Bay. The changes could see the floor to ratio plans of the Villa Rosa project grow exponentially. 

NGOs slammed the move as greedy and disgusting, with il-Kollettiv calling for an investigation into Schembri. 

The group's secretary Wayne Flask accused Schembri of leveraging his position as Land Minister to sell off land to developer Anton Camilleri, known as tal-Franċiż, in St Julian's, and Paul Attard of GAP and T&S Properties in Mellieħa for a fraction of their actual worth. 

After Schembri denied these claims, il-Kollettiv said on Friday that since the ministry had denied the claims and called them unfounded, they should put the matter to bed by publishing their correspondence on the issue. 

"Since the ministry in the declaration states that “all the facts are verifiable in a clear manner,” we request the immediate publication of all communications between the ministry, Lands Authority personnel, the developers and their representatives, including emails and Whatsapp chats, as well as a register of all meetings between the parties involved in these two agreements," il-Kollettiv said in a statement. 

They added that when previously asked in parliament whether the Lands Authority had ever issued a tender to sell the disputed plot in Mellieħa, Schembri had replied that he could not answer the question as the information about it was still being gathered. 

"We hope that by now, this information has been gathered, and can be published for public scrutiny," they said.