The Nationalist Party has accused parliament’s standards commissioner of turning a blind eye to ethical breaches by government MPs.

In a statement issued on Saturday, PN MPs Ryan Callus and Mark Anthony Sammut said Commissioner Joseph Azzopardi had patently failed to properly probe government MP Michael Farrugia over declarations he made when he was a junior minister.

Farrugia had denied ever discussing a high-rise policy for Mrieħel in a meeting he held with then-Planning Authority boss Johann Buttigieg and entrepreneur Yorgen Fenech.

The meeting was held hours before Farrugia sent a letter to the PA, instructing it to include Mrieħel as an area suitable for high-rises. The inclusion blindsided the Planning Ombudsman, who noted that it was never opened to the public for discussion.

Fenech benefitted from that decision as it allowed his family business, working alongside the Gasan group, to develop the Quad, a high-rise complex in the area.

The issue was flagged to the standards commissioner for investigation, who in early August concluded that Farrugia breached ethics by misleading Times of Malta and claiming that the Mrieħel high-rise decision was taken by a committee.

However, the commissioner made it clear that he could not delve into whether or not Farrugia’s decision to include Mrieħel in the high-rise policy was improper, as the law precluded his office from probing matters that occurred before the post was established.

Farrugia’s meeting with Fenech took place in 2014. The standards commissioner was established in 2018.

Azzopardi's unconvincing answers

In its statement on Saturday, the PN noted that during a meeting of parliament’s standards committee, it emerged that the standards commissioner had taken Farrugia and Buttigieg’s assurance that Mrieħel was not discussed during that 2014 meeting at face value.

He did not ask Yorgen Fenech for his version of events.

“When asked why he didn’t summon Fenech, the commissioner replied that Fenech is facing criminal proceedings and that therefore, if he was his lawyer he would have advised him not to speak,” the PN said.

The Mrieħel decision paved the way for the Quad development, seen here under construction in 2021. Photo: Matthew Mirabelli

The PN also noted that Johann Buttigieg’s testimony indicated that other people were also present in the room for that meeting – but the commissioner had also opted not to ask them to provide evidence, saying he did not feel the need to do so.

Commissioner Azzopardi had also said he had not asked for any copy of the meeting’s minutes, telling MPs he did not feel he needed to do so. Nor had he tried to verify whether Buttigieg’s claim – that the meeting was about land reclamation and that he was meeting with many entrepreneurs about the issue at that time – was true.

“It appears this investigation fell seriously short from verifying facts and allegations concerning this meeting and whether Michael Farrugia told the truth about it,” Callus and Sammut said on Saturday.

“This is confirmation that Joseph Azzopardi should never have been appointed standards commissioner,” they said. “No wonder Robert Abela was so determined to appoint Azzopardi and remove the two-thirds rule for the post.”

The PN had voted against Azzopardi’s appointment, arguing that it had little faith in the former chief justice fulfilling the role. Azzopardi was nevertheless appointed to the post after the government introduced an anti-deadlock mechanism into the law, allowing standards commissioners to be appointed with a simple majority whenever consensus is not reached.

In a reaction, the Labour Party said that the PN was indulging in political blackmail tactics.

“Whenever it doesn’t get its way, it seeks to pressure people occupying public posts to eventually decide in its favour,” the party said, adding that the PN and “the establishment that runs it” did this with all institutions.