‘No orders’ to buy fuel from Gaffarena’s once-illegal petrol station

Agriculture parliamentary secretary Roderick Galdes has vehemently denied ordering departments that fall under his remit to purchase fuel from Joe Gaffarena’s petrol station in Qormi. 

A parliamentary question to environment minister Leo Brincat has revealed that departments within the environment ministry are purchasing most of its fuel from the illegally-built J. Gaff Service Station. 

€21,300 was spent on fuel from that particular petrol station between January and May this year, in sharp contrast to the €26,134 spent on such fuel throughout the whole of 2014. 

The Ministry’s next most-used petrol station so far this year was the J. Micallef Service Station (€13,646), followed by Carlo Cini Ltd (€8,309).  

A note at the end of the PQ indicates that all fuel purchased from the J. Gaff Service Station was from departments that fall directly under Galdes, a former Qormi mayor who has been elected to Parliament three times from the sixth district. 

However, Galdes told MaltaToday that the petrol station in question is the nearest petrol station to the Ghammieri Government Farm in Marsa, that houses all the department that fall under the Secretariat’s responsibility. It is also located just a few metres away from the Animal Welfare Directorate, from which the animal ambulances are run.

In 2014, the Malta Environment and Planning Authority controversially granted Gaffarena a permit for the petrol station after it had been forcefully shut down in 2008 and again in 2009 after its owners illegally built new structures on the site. 

Galdes was the Labour representative on the MEPA board when they were discussing the possibility of sanctioning extension works on the petrol station in 2011. The board eventually ruled against such sanctioning, despite Galdes and the government’s representative MP Joseph Falzon both voting in favour. 

Galdes had called on his fellow board members to take into consideration the location of the development and “the improvements to the infrastructure and investment made”. 

While condemning Gaffarena for building without a permit, Galdes had argued that the area lied on the edge of the ODZ (outside development zone) boundary and was already committed for development to the extent that there were other buildings all along the same road.   

His vote in favour of sanctioning the extension works had contrasted with the Labour media’s relentless criticism on the issue: it was PL Sunday paper KullHadd that revealed in 2009 that Enemalta had supplied the petrol station with electricity, despite the lack of a compliance certificate.