No inquiry on Lidl permit that cost €331,000 in penalties

The Planning Authority has no intention of holding an internal inquiry after court sentence ordered it to fork out €331,295 in compensation for discrimination of landowners, over a Lidl supermarket permit in Luqa awarded to construction magnate Charles Polidano in 2006.

The court found that the Cutajar family had been repeatedly denied permission by the PA to build a garden centre on the same land, outside development zones.

However, after Polidano acquired the tract of land at a knock-off price as a result of its undevelopable status, the magnate was then granted a permit to build a supermarket, even despite objections by the Civil Aviation Department due to nearby aviation security concerns.

A PA spokesperson told MaltaToday the case had already been investigated in 2009, when asked whether an inquiry should now establish responsibility for the 2006 decision. “Investigations and an inquiry with regards to Lidl Supermarket permit had been conducted and concluded way back in 2009 and there is no reason whatsoever to reopen these investigations.”

The PA said the latest court judgement “did not dwell in the validity or otherwise of the Lidl Supermarket permit”.

The PA has yet to decide whether to appeal the court’s decision ordering it to pay €331,295 in compensation. The authority is “still examining this decision and is within the legal timeframe to appeal the decision by the court,” a PA spokesperson said. According to a Times report, the police are reviewing the court judgement when asked whether a corruption probe would take place.

2009 investigation

The case had initially been investigated by the PA’s former internal auditor Joe Falzon, who way back in 2009 had called for disciplinary action against employees of the PA’s planning directorate who approved the Polidano supermarket.

Falzon, since then vindicated by the court sentence, had called on the PA to refer the case for investigation of “possible criminal responsibility” over what he called “a gross irregularity”.

The case was instead referred to an internal inquiry board composed of PA board members Joe Tabone Jacono, Charles Bonnici and Joseph Farrugia.

The inquiry centred on the role of case officer Norbert Gerada and then team manager Silvio Farrugia, whom the panel interviewed. The investigation revealed that the directorate had asked for guidance from the PA board in a closed meeting held before recommending the project for approval.

Although the PA board had been “positively inclined towards the project”, it did so on the basis of plans which did not correspond to the approved project.

It emerged that in his meeting with the PA board, Silvio Farrugia recommended the demolition of a garage so as to move the supermarket building 10.3m beyond the existing building line.

But the PA board established that the final drawings approved by the development control commission showed the new building extending 23.5m from the building line.  “Did the directorate have the right to recommend the approval of a layout so different from the one presented to the MEPA board without going back to the MEPA board?” asked the board of inquiry.

The PA is now sticking to the absolution of Silvio Farrugia, who now leads the PA’s Development Management Directorate, which is also responsible for the assessment of major projects like the DB group’s City Centre project approved last month.

“The Inquiry did not impose any disciplinary actions against the Case Officer and the Team Manager, but recommended that officials should follow new procedures when it comes to presentations made by the Directorate to the Board.  Today procedures of both the Planning Commissions and Planning Board are well regulated by Law and regulations,” the PA spokesperson told MaltaToday this week.

The 2009 inquiry failed to establish why three permits on the same plot of land were previously refused while the Lidl supermarket was approved.

An incredulous Joe Falzon had reacted by reiterating his claim that the original applicant was “discriminated against”; yet the inquiry concluded that no discrimination took place, as no buildings were foreseen on this part of the site in the Lidl permit.

Falzon had pointed out that the permit to Polidano envisaged development on an even greater area than in the previous permits. “In three cases, they interpreted the policies correctly to turn down the application. How come these same policies were interpreted differently in this case?” Falzon asked back in 2009. “I am not saying that there was corruption. I am simply saying that this case should be investigated as there is enough evidence that policies have not been abided to.”

The PA officials were never punished for their favourable recommendation; and the same PA officer had also been censored for a favourable recommendation for a residential development in Kappara investigated by Joe Falzon.

Immediately following the change in government in 2013, Silvio Farrugia, a close collaborator of the newly-appointed PA CEO Johann Buttigieg, was promoted as the planning directorate’s new deputy director following an internal call.

Government sources had claimed Farrugia had been turned into a scapegoat for decisions taken at higher levels under the previous administration.