An internal auditor at the Lands Authority raised concerns over the way a planned sale of a public alley in St George’s Bay leading to the Ħarq Ħamiem valley was being carried out.
The alley happens to intersect land slated for massive development of an upscale hotel, retail area and tourist accommodation on the Villa Rosa site opposite the bay.
It was quietly put up for sale during the election campaign after years of what sources describe as “internal wrangling” at the authority over the site’s true sale value.
Tiffany Ann Farrugia, one of the authority’s auditors at the time, had flagged in a report published in 2020 how the planned tender left the door open for the alley to be roofed over by the Villa Rosa developer.
Renders of the proposed development appear to confirm those fears.
The report says it was the developer himself, through the company Garnet Investments Limited, that had petitioned the Lands Authority to put the public alley up for sale.
For some reason, the Lands Authority specified in the tender published last month that the open-air alley must be kept free and unobstructed only up to a height of 5.5 metres.
This leaves the door wide open for the developer to conjoin the two separate sites intersected by the alley by roofing it over, a fact noted by the internal auditor in her 2020 report.
Multiple land valuations
The auditor had also baulked at the €75,000 valuation the Lands Authority originally attached to the alley, which falls in a developable area, saying the valuation does not reflect market prices.
Sources say that after these internal concerns were flagged, the authority carried out at least two other valuations.
The alley was eventually put up for sale in March against a minimum bid of €133,846.
Sources familiar with the Lands Authority said the minimum bid set was “far lower” than one of the valuations obtained by the same authority.
A spokesperson for the authority, which falls under the political responsibility of Economy Minister Silvio Schembri, ignored multiple questions about the valuations carried out.
The call for tenders, which closed two days before the general election, attracted just one bid which unsurprisingly came from the Villa Rosa developer Garnet Investments Limited.
The bid was for €134,000, just €154 more than the minimum bid set by the Lands Authority.
The Malta Developers’ Association (MDA), which had publicly criticised the low valuation of the ITS site overlooking St George’s Bay, has yet to react to concerns about the authority’s valuation of the alley.