Former director points finger of blame at Falzon aide in Gaffarena expropriation

Marco Gaffarena, the property developer who obtained a fast-track expropriation that earned him €1.65 million in public lands and cash, would plant himself on a desk outside the corridor of the Lands Department’s estate management office, waiting for director Carmel Camilleri to inform him on the progress of his expropriation request.

And Clint Scerri, the aide to parliamentary secretary Michael Falzon – who has since resigned over the controversial expropriation – personally accompanied Gaffarena several times to the Lands Department, insisting with Camilleri to draft minutes for Falzon to approve on the spot.

This is what Camilleri, no longer a director, has declared in an affidavit he gave to the National Audit Office in the aftermath of their damning report, which found the expropriation of Gaffarena’s 50% share in 36, Old Mint Street, Valletta, had been irregular. 

READ MORE The Gaffarena expropriations

“I’d find Gaffarena sitting at a desk outside my office in the corridor, and he’d ask me at what stage the file on the expropriation was at. I would never discuss internal work, so I’d just say ‘it’s moving along’. It bothered me finding him there,” Camilleri said in an affidavit in which he denies any suggestion of having been bribed to accommodate the Gaffarena expropriation.

Camilleri also described in detail the way Scerri would bring Gaffarena to his office, giving instructions to commence an expropriation of his first 25% share in Old Mint Street, so that every single minute Camilleri drafts could be taken that very moment for approval from higher officials or from Michael Falzon himself.

“Clint and Marco stayed at my door, waiting for me to write a minute to start the expropriation. I pointed out it needed clearance from the assistant director because the funds available were for pre-1992 files, not new ones. But Clint immediately said to leave it in his hands… I remember telling me, ‘won’t it be for Michael [Falzon] to decide now…’,” Camilleri said of the very first meeting.

Scerri returned in another meeting to demand that valuations of the Old Mint Street palazzo start promptly, which informed Camilleri’s decision to appoint university departmental head Joseph H. Spiteri for the valuations.

Scerri later turned up with Gaffarena to select the public lands he wanted in compensation for the expropriated share of Old Mint Street.

“I had noticed that one of the Bahar ic-Caghaq fields originally listed in their demands, the Ta’ Harram field, had now been left out for compensation. Clint told me that if they included it, it would exceed the value of the 25% share in Old Mint Street. He said, ‘leave it out for the time being’. It was clear that someone had done their homework and the compensation value had already been worked out,” Camilleri said.

Soon after in February 2015, Scerri informed Camilleri that Gaffarena had acquired a second quarter-share in Old Mint Street, and asked for the expropriation to commence anew. This time, the Harrram field and another field in Bahar ic-Caghaq were earmarked for inclusion in the new compensation.

Camilleri defended himself from suggestions made in the NAO audit of the Gaffarena expropriation that he facilitated the expropriation by fast-tracking it. Camilleri was already interviewed by the NAO in its report on the Gaffarena expropriation.

“I’ve always run the office on an open door policy. I’ve never colluded with anyone. I’ve had to avoid Gaffarena when I’d see him at the door of the Lands Department on my way out for a break,” he said.

“I felt pressured by Clint Scerri urging me to steam ahead on the expropriation. I was pressed to do something that generally takes more time to do. When I told the NAO that I had not been pressured to do something, I meant that I was not being forced; but I have to say that Clint would tell me ‘not to make us look bad’… so I took a step back from saying that I felt threatened, from saying what Clint did, because it would make me fall foul of my superiors.”