‘I wasn’t told to resign’ – Michael Falzon

Lands parliamentary secretary Michael Falzon has denied having been asked to step down from his post by Prime Minister Joseph Muscat, over the controversial ‘Gaffarena expropriation’.

Falzon instead yesterday turned his guns on the Opposition leader, in reaction to criticism he received over having taken a €260,000 golden handshake from Bank of Valletta on becoming a member of the cabinet.

Speaking on Radju Malta’s Ghandi Xi Nghid, Falzon took umbrage that Busuttil had “gone for the jugular” when he had assisted Simon Busuttil when the latter requested his help during his time as a lawyer at Bank of Valletta.

Falzon declared his €260,000 early retirement package from BOV in his ministerial declarations. He also retains the right to return to his job on condition that he returns his retirement benefit on a pro rata basis.

“If someone truly knows the kind of service I gave at BOV, it’s the Opposition leader,” an irked Falzon said, referring to himself in the third person.

“When he needed help from Michael Falzon, not only did Michael Falzon help him… he went out of his way, helped him personally… I have helped everyone in 35 years of impeccable service, having been the most qualified of the lawyers there.”

Contacted for a reaction, a spokesperson for the PN said the episode Falzon referred to was an inquiry into who the person responsible for loans at BOV was.

The spokesperson said that the “favour” Falzon claimed to have done involved providing the contact details of a bank manager to the PN leader, which he did by sending a message to MP David Agius.

“The episode happened in 2013, when Busuttil and Falzon were walking out of the old Parliament in Valletta and the PN leader asked Falzon who he should talk to over a bridge loan he needed for his house in Brussels,” the spokesperson said. 

In his declaration of assets submitted in 2014, Busuttil declared a loan of €190,000 and the bank’s sanction letter for a €200,000 loan which he had not yet taken up.

No ‘Gaffarena payback’

Michael Falzon has denied that the Old Mint Street expropriation was a ‘payback’ to businessman Marco Gaffarena for what could have been Gaffarena’s support in the 2013 electoral campaign.

The parliamentary secretary, whose stewardship of the Lands Department and the expropriation of a Valletta palazzo housing government offices is the subject of two administrative investigations, yesterday hit out at the Opposition’s accusations in his regard.

“Opposition leader Simon Busuttil himself has stated that he does not suspect me of having pocketed anything,” Falzon said of the controversial, fast-track €1.65 million compensation to expropriate Gaffarena’s 50% ownership of the Old Mint Street house.

“If there’s one shortcoming here, it’s that the procedures left in place were inherited from the previous administration under Jason Azzopardi,” he said of the former lands minister.

“And the procedures were followed,” Falzon said of the way Gaffarena got an €825,000 cash payment, and lands that Gaffarena himself selected to add to his extensive property portfolio.

Both the National Audit Office, as well as the prime minister’s Internal Audit and Investigations Department, are investigating the expropriation.

But Falzon was chipper throughout the interview, twice asking presenter Andrew Azzopardi to “call [him] Michael”, and at various moments referring to himself in the third person. “Three-quarters of the press already has that expropriation file. I am sure that there is nothing wrong about this expropriation. I say this with God as my witness, I have no problem in saying this.”