The man who had been nominated to become the Planning Authority’s new chairman – but who admitted to having been offered a bribe by a policeman which he failed to report – will not be removed from his position on the Planning Commission.

Anthony Borg

Planning Minister Stefan Zrinzo Azzopardi told Times of Malta that Anthony Borg will retain his post on the Planning Commission, which deals with applications in outside development zones and those in urban conservation areas.

“Mr Borg’s term of office within the Planning Commission will statutorily end later on this year,” his spokesperson said when asked whether the government was retaining him following his failure to report a crime.

The revelation had been made by Borg himself as he was being grilled by parliament’s appointments committee.

The government had reacted immediately by withdrawing Borg’s nomination while Nationalist MP Karol Aquilina went to the police headquarters to report the case himself.

Borg boasts of a 45-year career in the public service and has worked at the Planning Authority since its inception. It was within this context that Aquilina asked him whether he had ever seen any abuse at the authority.

After a pause, Borg recalled that, about 12 years ago, when he was a case officer, a policeman had gone to him “with an envelope” asking for a favour.

“I immediately walked away and told him to never speak to me again,” Borg told the committee. “I don’t know who he was and I don’t want to know,” he added.

Asked what he had done about the attempted bribe and whether he had reported the case to his superiors or put it down in writing somehow, Borg said he never followed the case again and did not report it because he felt that refusing the bribe was enough and there was no need to take the case further.