Grech tells Naxxar mayor to resign over conflict, Cassola requests Standards probe

Naxxar mayor Anne Marie Muscat Fenech Adami has been asked to resign after she failed to declare her conflict of interest in a proposed Naxxar development at the former trade fair grounds.

The PN said secretary-general Michael Piccinino had spoken with Naxxar mayor Anne Marie Muscat Fenech Adami, after having discussed the matter with PN leader Bernard Grech, and asked her to resign “in the face of an undeclared conflict of interest as revealed in the media,” a statement by the PN read.

Should Muscat Fenech Adami fail to submit her resignation in the coming 24 hours, the case will be brought before the party disciplinary and ethics commission in order to be able to investigate and reach its conclusions on this case. “The Nationalist Party demands the highest standards from officials and all those who either represent it,” the PN said.

The independent candidate, Arnold Cassola, has reported Muscat Fenech Adami to the Commissioner for Standards in Public Life, requesting an investigation. “The mayor is caught up in a conflict of interest not only because she betrayed Naxxar’s residents with her vote, but because the project’s architect is a shareholder in the company she serves as secretary… her arrogant behaviour betrays the shambles of our political mentality that is spreading from parliament to our councils.”

Earlier on Sunday, MaltaToday reported on how the Naxxar mayor felt there was no conflict of interest when she did not declare to the local council, she was a company secretary in a firm partly owned by Edwin Mintoff, the architect of controversial 10-storey tower she voted in favour of.

Nationalist mayor Anne Marie Muscat Fenech Adami voted for the project, a two-tower complex at the former trade fair grounds, despite the council having previously said it was opposed to the proposed height just a month ago.

Muscat Fenech Adami happens to be a company secretary in a company where the apartment complex project architect Edwin Mintoff is a shareholder.

Asked by MaltaToday on whether she would be resigning earlier, Muscat Fenech Adami said she would not. “No, not at all. It wasn’t me alone who took the decision, we did it collectively as a council,” she said.