The Nationalist Party has asked the Auditor General to investigate contracts which handed public land to Jordanian investors Sadeen Education Investment Ltd to develop the American University of Malta.
The party also wants the National Audit Office to see whether the contracts, signed in 2016 and last year, can be cancelled due to a failure by Sadeen to respect its legal obligations.
The request to the NAO was made by the PN members of parliament's Public Accounts Committee and substitute members, through a seven-page statement.
The government granted Sadeen an emphyteutical grant of 13,334 sq/m of land in Cospicua and 31,000 sq/m of land in Żonqor on March 11, 2016 but agreed on the alteration to the contract in September 2022, when Sadeen gave up its land in Żonqor in exchange for 31,547 sq/m of land at SmartCity.
The deals were beset by controversy from the very start, with massive public protests objecting to plans to build a campus on countryside land at Żonqor point and multiple reports revealing AUM failures in attracting students.
The auditor was asked to investigate whether the process leading up to the two contracts was fair and whether the principles of good governance had been observed.
He was also asked to investigate if Sadeen had abided by its contractual obligations and whether the government had exercised proper due diligence and good governance when it granted even more favourable terms for the company in last year's contract.
The PN MPs observed that in contrast to the first contract, in the second contract, Sadeen enjoyed a perpetual, rather than temporary emphyteusis on the land granted to it, and this emphyteusis could be redeemed based on a price of 47c per square metre. The land could then be used for whatever the company wished.
The auditor was asked to establish whether this was a fair price for the land or whether it was an advantageous rate, to the detriment of the public purse.
The auditor was also asked to establish whether another 'secret' 2015 contract granting a further 3,022 square metres of land at Żonqor, and signed between then OPM chief of staff Keith Schembri and Hani Saah for Sadeen was fair, coherent and based on good governance.
Furthermore, the auditor was asked whether the government could unilaterally terminate all the contracts with Sadeen given that the organisation had failed to observe its contractual obligations, including minimum employment and student levels, thus also making last year's land concession unjustified.
The PN request was signed by Darren Carabott, president of the Public Accounts Committee, members David Agius, Rebekah Borg and Graham Bencini and the shadow minister for justice, Karol Aquilina.