Police seeking AG’s advice on criminal steps into Gaffarena expropriation

The Commissioner of Police has told this newspaper that the police was still examining the report by the Auditor General into the irregular €1.65 million expropriation of 36, Old Mint Street, Valletta.

Michael Cassar told MaltaToday that advice from the Attorney General’s office was being sought to identify possible crimes that may have been committed when the Government Property Department expropriated Marco Gaffarena’s 50% share in the building, which houses government offices, for a combined cash and land deal.

“Since the report by the Auditor General is based on an administrative investigation and not on the investigation and preservation of evidence relating to  criminal offences, as is done in magisterial inquiries, the first step being taken by the police is the examination of the Auditor’s report for the purpose of identifying whether there is a legal basis to commence a criminal investigation and if so on which specific  crimes.”

The NAO report and an investigation by the Internal Audit and Investigations Department found that the Old Mint Street share was over-valued by an external architect contracted by the GPD, while six government lands transferred to Gaffarena were under-valued.

The Prime Minister has filed legal action to obtain a warrant of prohibitory injunction to stop any sale of the lands transferred to Gaffarena, and to recoup the lands because the variations in their values breached a 30% limit established under the Disposal of Government Lands Act.

The irregular expropriation has cost former parliamentary secretary Michael Falzon his Cabinet position, but also prompted the resignation of civil servants who facilitated an expropriation that had no public purpose, and whose erroneous valuations netted Gaffarena an aggregate €3,378,000.

But under legal action instituted by Muscat to recover the wrongly-valued lands, the prime minister could also kick-start a criminal investigation.

Under the Disposal of Government Land Act (DGLA), any person “who enters into or appears on any deed, instrument or contract” in contravention of the DGLA’s provisions is guilty of an offence and liable on conviction to a fine of not more than €2,329 or imprisonment not exceeding six months, or both.

The contravention must be in breach of Article 3 of the DGLA, which lists the ways in which government land can be disposed of – article 3 (g) states that no government land can be disposed of unless it is made “in accordance with any other law for the time being in force”.