The Lands Authority’s chief audit officer has slammed transparency and good governance failures which saw her shut out of board meetings and documents being withheld from her.

The authority is tasked with administering public land in the best possible way on behalf of taxpayers.

In a hard-hitting annual audit report concluded in February, the head of the authority’s internal audit directorate accused the board of impeding her work.

The dispute escalated last summer when the Lands Authority’s board pushed back at the auditor’s continued requests to attend any board meeting of her choosing.

Internal audit chief Charlene Muscat accused the board of failing to act on the advice they themselves sought from the advocate general about whether she had a right to attend any board meeting she wished to be present for. 

According to the advice given last July, then state advocate Victoria Buttigieg said the board had no authority to impede the auditor’s right to attend meetings, as allowed by the law governing the Lands Authority.

She said in the report that the board’s failure to immediately act on the state advocate’s advice directly impacted good governance and transparency at the authority.

The audit directorate has the right to vet all land and property transactions over €100,000 undertaken by the authority.

Board cuts off all communication with chief auditor

The dispute appears to have worsened towards the end of last year, when the board, according to the report, cut off all communication with the chief audit officer.

Board documents and minutes were also withheld to the auditor, the report continues.

No reference to the chief auditor’s misgivings, raised in the February report, was made in the Land Authority’ annual report which was presented to parliament last week.

The chief auditor, a former ONE TV reporter, also took a pot-shot at the opposition for abdicating its responsibilities on the Lands Authority board.

MP Ryan Callus resigned from the board in November 2019, citing “unprecedented interference by the government” in the board’s functions and that of the authority, after decision-making powers were shifted away from the board and given to the authority’s then CEO James Piscopo.

The PN only reversed its decision to withdraw from the authority’s board last month, with the nomination of Kristy Debono to replace Callus.

Piscopo is the subject of a police investigation into a claim peddled by former OPM chief of staff Keith Schembri that he hid upwards of €600,000 in an offshore account at an overseas bank.

Schembri had used his friend, murder suspect Yorgen Fenech, to try to get the claim published in the media around January 2019.