BICC chairman unaware of Gaffarena expropriation deal

Labour MP Charles Buhagiar, chairman of the Building Industry Consultative Council, claimed he was unaware of a €1.65 million compensation for the expropriated property of Marco Gaffarena in Valletta. 

Gaffarena was paid the compensation in cash and lands for half a property in Old Mint Street that houses the government offices of the BICC.

In January this year, the government paid Gaffarena €822,500 for a quarter of the property that he had purchased for €23,294 in December 2007. The following month, February, Gaffarena purchased another quarter of the property for €139,762, which the government subsequently expropriated for another €822,500, in April. 

However, Buhagiar denied any knowledge of the government’s intentions to expropriate the building that houses the BICC’s offices. 

“Expropriation falls under the Lands Department,” Buhagiar told MaltaToday. “I hadn’t known about their expropriation plans, nor did I have any reason to know about them. It’s none of my business. I first heard about the story from the newspaper last week.” 

He also denied knowing of Gaffarena’s intentions to purchase shares in the property and insisted that he wasn’t aware of any work that he or his architects’ office had carried out for Gaffarena or his company.

Parliamentary secretary Michael Falzon has claimed that the transaction was a completely regular one and that no criminal investigation was necessary. 

“The only reason it made the news was because of his surname,” Falzon said of Gaffarena at a news conference on Monday. Gaffarena is an associate of Labour MP Joe Sammut. A petrol pump station he owns in Qormi is associated with a number of illegalities that were recently sanctioned by the Labour administration. 

“The land was realistically valued at €822,500 by architects appointed by the Government Property Division,” Falzon told the news conference. “We’re not private estate agents and negotiate according to the fair market value. If Gaffarena had originally bought the land for a cheaper price than the market value, then he simply made a good business deal.” 

Various attempts were made to contact Falzon on whether he agrees that Gaffarena’s deal raises a red flag over his attempt to under-value the property, whether the GPD consulted any notarial deeds pertaining to the history of the property it was valuating, whether he agrees that somebody within the Lands Department or the BICC had fed Gaffarena with inside information about the government’s intentions to expropriate the property, and what remedial steps the government would take if so.

Questions were also sent to Finance Minister Edward Scicluna on whether the Tax Compliance Unit or Inland Revenue Department should investigate the deal and whether he will send government architects to investigate the evaluation of the property. However, both sets of questions remained unanswered at the time of going to print.