Busuttil calls on PM to publish Gaffarena, Cafe Premier, Australia Hall and Shanghai Electric contracts

Leader of the Oppostion Simon Busuttil has called on the Prime Minister Joseph Muscat and Planning Secretary Michael Falzon to shoulder the political responsibility for the Gaffarena property deals.

Speaking on Radio 101 this morning, the PN leader pointed out that on one hand there are people whose property had been expropriated for a public purpose and had been waiting up to 40 years for compensation and then, on the other hand Marco Gaffarena being given half a million in cash and lands – a value calculated by the government itself - in mere months.

Gaffarena scandal

“An independent and conservative evaluation carried out in the press has valued the land at 3.2 million,” He added, saying that this, higher, valuation was still “on the low side.”

“It is not enough for the PM, just to save face, to tell the newspapers today that he is offering to undo the deal if something wrong had been done. He must bear the political responsibility for it.”

Busuttil said that Joseph Muscat’s modus operandii had emerged from the numerous scandals he has been involved in. He called on Muscat to publish the contracts for the sale of the power station to China, Australia Hall, Café Premier as well as those pertaining to Gaffarena, noting that previous calls have been ignored.

 “The Prime Minister has a pattern – first he does things behind peoples back, then when this is exposed he makes excuses.”

The PN leader exclaimed that things should be done correctly from the outset and if they are not done this way, Muscat must bear responsibility.

Busuttil was not impressed by Muscat’s pledge to reverse the Gaffarena deal if it is found to be dishonest. “Of course you must undo the wrong, but this was not a mistake – when you do something on purpose and then hide it, that means there is an intention and therefore you must bear political responsibility for it.  Especially when you have been elected on promises of accountability.”

“Let me tell you what scale of corruption we are talking about. You have a government property which has been given to an individual. You have no reason to give this property to an individual. You give the individual an exaggerated sum in compensation. Then you have the fact that Gaffarena had chosen the compensation himself.”

He listed some reasons for which Joseph Muscat must bear responsibility for this. “First of all, he is the PM and the buck stops with him,” said Busuttil, “but he is doubly responsible because he is also minister for lands!” He explained that in his ministerial portfolio, Joseph Muscat had kept the lands department and the MEPA.

“Australia Hall, Café Premier and now Gaffarena!” exclaimed the PN leader.

Busuttil said that the opposition would not be happy with Falzon’s resignation. “Muscat must bear the responsibility himself. What is the investigation for? The illegalities are flagrant!” he said, with reference to the PM’s promise to investigate the matter.

He pointed out that back in March, two months before the local council elections, the Café Premier scandal broke. Back then, said Busuttil, Muscat had said he had been too quick and had made a mistake.

He pointed out that the sale, to Marco Gaffarena, of the first quarter of the Old Mint Street property  took place a month before this statement. The sale of the second quarter of the property, however was sold a month after. “This means the Prime Minister lied to our faces. While he was apologising for the café premier scandal he was halfway between his deals with Gaffarena.”

“We will not be content with the morsels he throws to us. We don’t simply want him to return the property, we want political responsibility to be borne.”

But Muscat was not the only person who should bear responsibility, he said. Parliamentary secretary for planning Michael Falzon was also heavily involved and had lied to the electorate, Busuttil pointed out.

“Michael Falzon first said that he had no connection to the issue. Subsequently however, in an interview with MaltaToday, he admitted that he had met with Gaffarena at Castille and discussed the case before the property was given to him. He also admitted that he had gone on a hunting trip abroad with Gaffarena. Then, he further admitted that Gaffarena had approached government to expropriate his land. This is not how expropriation works!” exclaimed an outraged Busuttil.

He went on. “Falzon further admitted that Gaffarena was allowed to choose the property to be expropriated himself and he admitted that he had signed the deal himself. One link in this chain connects to the other."  One of Falzon’s underlings had accompanied Gaffarena on a visit to the Lands Department.  "What is he [Falzon] waiting for [to resign]?"

"So what exactly must one do to be connected to this?” asked Busuttil.

Zonqor

In this case, said Busuttil, the same politics as Gaffarena, Café premier and Australia hall was at play and asked whether the government knew if anyone else might be interested in the land?

He said that aside from the environmental aspect, which he had spoken about many times previously, there was also a transparency aspect to the issue, as a large tract of public land has been given away without a call or any dealings with the public.

“Our first objection to the Zonqor plan is environmental, that it is ODZ. ODZ means you cannot develop it – hence Outside Development Zone,” said Busuttil. His second objection was regarding the educational value of the project, or rather, the lack thereof.

Busuttil exhorted civil society to stand up and make its voice heard, repeating a soundbite he first uttered at Zonqor Point itself, “if government insists on going ahead it will have to steamroller over us”.

 “The PN will follow civil society in this issue,” said the Nationalist leader, calling on listeners to attend the demonstration which will be held in front of the parliament building next Saturday morning.

Ministerial Code of Ethics

The topic moved on to the amendments to the Ministerial Code of Ethics. “They have changed the Code and instead of making it more comprehensive, they have diluted it. This is a prime ministerial decision.”

The problem, however was not that ministers were doing as they pleased, but that the Prime Minister was doing so. Busuttil pointed to Greece, still in the throes of an economic disaster. “The Greek Prime Minister had promised a lot of things before elections and now his bubble has burst.”

He noted that tomorrow marks the 800th anniversary of the Magna Carta. Signed in 1215, this was the first agreement on human rights and governmental accountability in history. Two years into Muscat’s tenure, Busuttil contrasted, we have institutionalised corruption.

“I promise clean politics. I want the PN to clean politics. I want these obscenities to stop.” He promised to publish a set of proposals and a code of ethics which a future PN government will implement “from day one of its election” by the end of this year.

Busuttil conceded that PN has a long way to go to win back the people’s trust, but said that Muscat is eating away at the trust people had put in him.

“People know how to judge and when they do,, they will realise that the PN is a party they can rely on.”