The Standards Commissioner will not investigate concerns that a €2 million façade restoration scheme favoured residents in Aaron Farrugia’s electoral districts.
Commissioner Joseph Azzopardi informed the complainant, Arnold Cassola, that he would not be delving into the issue as it was impossible for his office to determine whether the PA funds should have been made available to other roads, aside from those deemed eligible.
Cassola had filed a request for the commissioner to investigate Farrugia in June 2021, shortly after Farrugia, who at the time served as Planning Minister, announced the €2m Irrestawra l-Faccata scheme.
The scheme was intended to help finance façade restorations for homeowners in busy, high-traffic streets within Urban Conservation Areas.
Just 14 roads across Malta and Gozo qualified for funding. Of those 14, seven were in electoral districts contested by Farrugia.
In his complaint, Cassola argued that it appeared residents in Farrugia’s electoral districts were being given privileged access to taxpayer funding.
The Standards Commissioner, at the time George Hyzler, started looking into the complaint in February 2022. Both the minister and then-CEO of the Planning Authority, Martin Saliba, said in written correspondence that the scheme was piloted by the PA.
Hyzler’s successor, Joseph Azzopardi, picked up the preliminary probe. In his report to Cassola, Azzopardi noted that while many of the streets eligible for funding were indeed in Farrugia’s district, most of those roads were prone to heavy traffic. He cited examples such as Valley Road, Birkirkara, and Triq il-Kbira in Rabat.
“It is difficult, if not impossible, for this office to obtain detailed information that allows it to determine whether other streets in other localities merited inclusion in the scheme,” the commissioner concluded.
“Likewise, it is not possible for this office to evaluate the architectural and historic value of these streets, thereby assuming the role of the relevant authority [PA].”
The Commissioner, therefore, declined to investigate the complaint and informed Cassola of the decision.
While the law exempts the commissioner from publishing its decisions not to investigate complaints, Cassola shared a copy of the decision with the media.