Falzon must resign over Gaffarena scandal, Busuttil says in speech on ‘institutionalized corruption’

Opposition leader Simon Busuttil mounted yet another charge on the Labour administration’s proximity with construction contractors and people like Marco Gaffarena, who took €1.65 million in a fast-track expropriation from the government, and called on parliamentary secretary for lands Michael Falzon to resign.

Busuttil was the first to address the House after Falzon presented legal amendments on government leases for commercial establishments, accusing Falzon of ignoring the Gaffarena scandal.

“In just two years, ‘Malta Taghna Lkoll’ has become ‘Malta Taghhom Biss’… ‘Malta ta’ Gaffarena biss’… a government that caters for the interests of the few, and whose own Labour supporters feel that they’ve had enough of,” Busuttil said.

“Falzon today comes to the House without even speaking about what everyone is talking about: the Gaffarena scandal. And there’s enough to go by here to see Falzon resign.”

In a quick reaction, Prime Minister Joseph Muscat reiterated that “we should wait for the IAID to conclude its investigation. I am confident that the investigation will reveal all facts”.

Busuttil accused Falzon of having turned Marco Gaffarena into a multi-millionaire overnight by expropriating his 50% ownership of a Valletta palazzo in Old Mint Street, which the government was leasing for the BICC offices up until 2028.

Gaffarena was given €1.65 million in cash and lands which he personally selected from the Government Property Division. He originally bought 25% of the Old Mint Street house in 2007 and then purchased the other 25% just a month after the government expropriated the first quarter in January 2015.

“This happened with government’s blessing… and that’s why this is institutionalised corruption,” Busuttil said.

Both government whip Godfrey Farrugia and home affairs minister Carmelo Abela, a former whip, raised points of order to call on Busuttil to reply to Michael Falzon’s motion on legal amendments to government leases for commercial buildings.

Busuttil proceeded, listing how Gaffarena was given lands on which he already had some form of pecuniary or speculative interest, including a field in Qormi where he operated an unlicensed restaurant.

“Anyone with some sense knows that this is a corrupt decision from Castille… you promised a culture of political responsibility, and a culture of resignations. We are waiting for Falzon to shoulder responsibility and resign, as well as all those people from within the Lands Department who were party to this expropriation,” Busuttil said.

“We’re not saying that Falzon pocketed something from this deal – we are saying that he knew of this expropriation, which he signed off on, and that this was his responsibility.”

Busuttil further told the House that Falzon had admitted, in an interview with MaltaToday, that he had gone abroad with Gaffarena, that he met Gafferena at Castille, that Gaffarena asked for the expropriation and that he chose himself the lands for compensation, and that his own aide accompanied Gaffarena to the Lands Department.

“Take political responsibility and resign,” Busuttil called out to Falzon. “If you are man enough, you will resign… you knew this man, he was your friend, your aide assisted him and you signed the expropriation.”

Busuttil then turned his attention to the Prime Minister, as he declared that the roots of the Labour administration’s obligations towards certain people were sown while it was in Opposition.

“Let’s not forget that Falzon is parliamentary secretary under Joseph Muscat, who is responsible for lands. The question is, what sort of tentacles have grabbed hold of the Lands Department? And it is clear that for Gaffarena to get this kind of deal, Labour have some sort of obligation towards him, enough to give him an exaggerated compensation,” Busuttil said.

He said that even Speaker Anglu Farrugia, after his forcible resignation from the Labour Party, had spoken of the proximity of big contractors to the party, and their closeness to the party’s finance handlers. “You had said that your problem with contractors was ‘that it triggers fears of corruption.’”

Busuttil said it was clear that Muscat himself was responsible for the Gaffarena scandal. “The buck stops with him… how could he not have known about a case like this?”

Busuttil said that by the end of the year, the Nationalist Party will present a ‘good governance’ package that will include a new code of ethics, standards on participation in public life, an anti-corruption drive, nominations for people to be appointed onto public boards, and promote meritocracy over nepotism.

In his reply to the speech, Falzon defended his role in the expropriation saying that there was no form of political interference in the way either expropriation or evaluation of the Old Mint Street property were made. “I assure you there was no sort of political intervention,” he said.

Falzon emphatically denied having been influenced by his friendship with Gaffarena in rubber-stamping the expropriation. “I would never go down to these base levels to interfere in your private lives and see with whom you ever went abroad,” Falzon said of a hunting trip with Gaffarena he had been on, some 13 years ago.

He also accused former lands minister Jason Azzopardi of having expropriated land at il-Fekruna at Xemxija on the eve of the election, compensating the owner with two pieces of land. But Azzopardi raised a point of order, saying negotiations had taken three years to conclude, with six architects brought in to assist in the expropriation.