The Lands Authority has been left without an internal audit chief after the incumbent was “redeployed” following a scathing report about the regulator’s inner workings.

In a bid to improve transparency within the authority, an internal audit directorate headed by a chief audit officer was created to independently scrutinise transactions over €100,000 which the authority’s board and CEO entered into.

Charlene Muscat, who was handed the role in 2018, authored a critical report in response to being shut out of board meetings, in what she said was a blow to good governance and transparency within the authority.

A spokesperson for the authority told Times of Malta that Muscat had finished her first three-year term and, upon her request, was “redeployed” to a different role within the public service.

However, one source within the authority said Muscat was “left dangling” about whether her contract would be renewed, leading her to seek employment elsewhere.

Call will be issued once all the procedural aspects are completed

The spokesperson said the authority is in the process of appointing a new chief audit officer.

“A call will be issued once all the procedural aspects are completed,” the spokesperson said, adding the new chief audit officer will retain all rights afforded to this role, including full access to all documents and board meetings.

Muscat did not respond to a request for comment about her requested “redeployment”.

Muscat's scathing report

The former audit chief said in a February audit report that the authority’s board had failed 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. 

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 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 from the auditor, the report continues.

The Lands Authority was set up on the back of a pledge for more transparency about how public land is sold off.

Reforms were carried out to what was then known as the government property department, in the wake of the Gaffarena scandal, which had led to the resignation of minister Michael Falzon in 2016.

Businessman Marco Gaffarena recently lost an appeal to force the sale of a property in Old Mint Street, Valletta which has been the subject of a controversial expropriation.

Gaffarena had sought to profit from the deal following inside knowledge about the planned expropriation.