After Abela became prime minister, Planning Authority opted for in-house lawyer

There was no tender issued for the Planning Authority’s legal services after Robert Abela’s law firm renounced its brief when he became prime minister in January 2020.

The case-load is now being handled “by a full-time in-house lawyer”, a PA spokesperson confirmed.

In June 2020, the authority issued a public vacancy to recruit a person “to provide legal advice to the executive chairman and the directorates on planning-related and other matters”.

Subsequently, lawyer Melanie Sammut was appointed assistant director of the authority’s legal services.

At that time, a PA spokesperson told MaltaToday that a public tender for legal services was being drawn up but no such tender was ever issued. The PA has now reverted back to having its own full-time lawyer.

Roberta Abela’s law firm, Abela Advocates, renounced the PA brief when he became PM in January last year.

The lucrative contract was originally assigned to Abela’s father, George Abela, in 2001, when he was a partner with planning law expert Ian Stafrace in Abela, Stafrace & Associates. Stafrace was later appointed to the PA as chief executive under a Nationalist administration.

The firm was still retained by the PA to take over the bulk of legal work when the authority’s own head of legal services Anthony De Gaetano, accused the authority of mishandling a domestic planning matter concerning his property, due to alleged political influence.

The PA paid Abela, Stafrace & Associates a total of €1.23 million up until 2011 for handling its caseload when Stafrace was appointed CEO.

The firm had been hand-picked after an expression of interest and the contract was extended into 2013, and then renewed again for the fee of €107,263 annually and €54.99 for each hour of “additional work”.

In 2017, Abela Advocates received €110,000 for legal services offered to the Planning Authority. The law firm received €168,000 in 2016, €110,000 in 2015 and €88,000 in 2014 in retainers from the PA, awarded by direct order.

During the leadership campaign Abela had backtracked on his initial declaration to MaltaToday that his wife and the family firm should not be denied the opportunity to bid for government work. Subsequently, Abela said he would aspire for higher ethical standards and insisted his wife Lydia Abela, a partner in the family legal firm, will not be bidding for work in the public sector. The firm then gave up its brief.