A Malta Enterprise investment committee that came in for scathing criticism by the Sofia public inquiry has hit back.

The committee said that it was misled about the Corradino development they approved in 2019 and which collapsed in late 2022, killing 20-year-old Jean Paul Sofia and injuring five others.

“The Investment Committee only approved a one-storey workshop - not a five-floor factory as was incorrectly stated in the inquiry conclusions,” committee members said in a statement.

“No mention of a criminal record was ever made and no matter of concern, of whatever nature, was ever flagged.”

Three members of the committee – chair Peter Borg and members Victor Carachi and Paul Abela – resigned last week after the Sofia public inquiry concluded that they should have never approved two developers’ proposal to build a furniture factory on government land in Corradino.

Five people, including its two developers Kurt Buhagiar and Matthew Schembri, face criminal charges of involuntary homicide in relation to that incident.

Peter Borg and Victor Carachi, who both sat on the investment committee, have publicly said they disagree with the inquiry findings.

While the inquiry found no evidence of corruption in the way Buhagiar and Schembri were allocated land in Corradino, it also concluded that the two developers should never have had their proposal approved by Malta Enterprise and INDIS, saying the proposal was “objectively lacking in every respect” and that the investment committee handled it in a “superficial” manner.

Committee chair Peter Borg subsequently said he was resigning despite the inquiry having “misconceptions and incorrect assumptions” about the committee’s work.

On Saturday morning, committee member Carachi also went public with his misgivings, saying he was irked that the inquiry had drawn its conclusions without having ever summoned any of its members to testify.

“None of us were invited to testify. The least they could have done was summon Peter Borg, the committee chairman and deputy chair of Malta Enterprise,” Carachi said on RTK 103.

Shortly after Carachi went public, the committee issued a public statement.

In it, committee members said that they were presented with a proposal to develop a one-storey, 300 square metre workshop of high-end furniture “and nothing more”.

Based on that proposal, the €262,500 budget proposed would have sufficed at 2019 prices to build the workshop.

The proposal was recommended for approval by Malta Enterprise management and came with bank references and indications that the applicants had passed due diligence checks.

That, coupled with the fact that “prospects for the furniture industry were at the time (and indeed remain today) quite favourable”, led to the project being approved.

“No mention of a criminal record was ever made and no matter of concern, of whatever nature, was ever flagged,” the committee said.

That appears to be a reference to one of the project’s two developers, Kurt Buhagiar, who was arrested in Sicily in connection with human trafficking allegations in the past.

Committee members said that they had never been asked to testify or present documents and were therefore never given the chance to explain any of that.

“As a result, we were censured by the Board for having handled this case in a “superficial” manner, without ever having been heard as the dictates of natural justice require,” the members said.

Apart from Borg, Abela and Carachi, the investment committee that approved the Corradino project in 2019 also included Dana Farrugia and Frank Farrugia. 

Aside from accepting the resignations of Borg, Abela and Carachi, last week Malta Enterprise also sacked Kevin Camilleri, the employee who processed the furniture factory proposal and presented it to the investment committee for approval.

Sources close to Malta Enterprise have said that the entity is now considering abolishing the investment committee altogether.