[WATCH] ‘Government has wrong priorities’, PN says over expropriations

‘Government has its priorities wrong’ – PN • Video by Ray Attard

Opposition MPs Jason Azzopardi and Ryan Callus today lambasted the decision to pave a rural road leading to a plot of land in Qormi which was given to Marco Gaffarena as part of a controversial €1.65 million expropriation deal which they said confirmed that “government has its priorities wrong.”

They pointed out that while the road leading to Gaffarena’s property was paved from taxpayers’ money and EU funds, adjacent country roads in dire need for resurfacing were overlooked, despite some 120 families live in the area.

“A billboard that had been erected to show off the works, has disappeared since this story was revealed on local media,” Callus said, adding that this had led many to question why and whether there was indeed something to hide.

The MPs hit out at government’s decision to discontinue the scheme which compensated families which had their lands expropriated by previous governments.

However, Azzopardi said that this government is ignoring hundreds of families interested in becoming home owners and instead it governs for its own interest. He went on to list the controversial decision to allow the Labour Party to sell Australia Hall in Pembroke for €10 million, the €4.2 million Café Premier bailout and the expropriation deal granted to Marco Gaffarena.

"The government could have used the €18 million it squandered on these deals to pay the monies due in the Home Ownership Scheme," he said, adding that government’s priorities were not families but individuals with close links to the Labour Party.

Referring to individual stories he had heard, Azzopardi stressed that the Home Ownership scheme had restored peace of mind to some 600 families under the previous PN legislation, but that the current government had chosen not to pursue this scheme.

“The PN government had paid some €8 million to give home owners the rights to the lands their homes are built on, and to compensate land owners for the land that had been expropriated between 2009 and 2012,” he said.

He added that had the government kept up this scheme, all the families would have peace of mind by the end of 2016, however a parliamentary question raised by Callus during a recent sitting had confirmed that not much had been done to address the situation in the last two years.

He went on to list the number of families still waiting for a resolution, adding that there was a total of some 436 properties around Malta and Gozo.

Answering questions from the press, Azzopardi added that the PN administration’s efforts to deal with this issue had started regardless of local politics.

“The areas where the expropriation had taken place under the Labour government in the 80s, pertained to areas where the PN was traditionally weak; in the fourth and fifth districts,” he said.

“However, the PN government had still chosen to offer a helping hand to concerned families, who are now being abandoned once again.”

PL urges Azzopardi to answer for issues in the lands sector during previous legislation

“Despite the fact that shadow justice minister Jason Azzopardi and other PN spokespersons’ have organized various press conferences, Azzopardi has never answered to his own behaviour when he was parliamentary secretary for lands,” a statement issued by the Labour Party points out.

PL insists that Azzopardi should answer for issues like the land at Imtahleb.

“All evidence clearly shows that his department and the then-prime Minister Lawrence Gozni,  had interfered to ensure a greater financial compensation for the land,” the statement said further pointing out cases like the land at the area known as Tal-Fekruna and about various other lands that were given out only some hours prior to last general election.

“Azzopardi is not only constantly repeating himself, but he is also spreading falsehoods.”

“The current government has put itself up to public scrutiny about the cases the opposition keeps mentioning, even through investigations it ordered itself,” PL pointed out.

“The Nationalist government on the other hand, has hidden various investigations and kept various contracts under wraps,” the statement reads, mentioning the agreement between Mater Dei and Skanska for the procurement of concrete, which has since been deemed of inferior quality.