Update 2 | Parliamentary secretary suspends Rabat home works pending investigation

Muscat suggests Borg should stop Rabat works

Prime Minister Joseph Muscat has suggested that parliamentary secretary Ian Borg should stop works on his disputed Rabat home, as an Ombudsman’s decision on planning permit he obtained for the works was passed on to the Permanent  Commission Against Corruption.

“I will comment after the commission finishes its work… if it was me I would stop building, wait until the decision of the commission. But MEPA has issued its defence of the permit it issued, which in my view is very convincing. I think Ian Borg should make his own decisions, but if it was me I would stop the work,” Muscat said in a short comment to the press while visiting the new Hilltop Gardens home for the elderly.

In a statement, the PN said Muscat did not have the political courage to suspend Borg. “The fact that the Ombudsman said Borg had been awarded a planning permit by being ‘devious’ is enough for Borg to shoulder responsibility, and suspend himself pending the anti-corruption commission’s investigation. This is as clear a fact as it should be for Michael Falzon.”

Contacted by MaltaToday following the Prime Minister's comments, the junior minister said works on his house were suspended on Thursday afternoon at 4pm.

“I am convinced that I did nothing wrong but, for prudence’s sake, I decided to suspend works pending the investigation,” Borg said.

On Thursday, Borg brushed away the need to put the property he purchased in Rabat on his name. “I am convinced that if I had to put the property on my name, you would be saying that the permit was issued because of that.”

Borg played down the seriousness of investigations carried out by the Ombudsman, as being about the technical process as issued by MEPA.

Borg insisted that he bought the property within the parameters of the law.

But the Ombudsman has claimed that Borg used a “devious method” to get the MEPA permit for the property by using his father’s name and a project manager to appear as the property’s owners.

Borg is claiming that the person who purchased the property next to his “did the exact same thing”, when explaining why he applied for a permit using someone else’s name.

Asked whether he thinks he should suspend himself until the investigation is complete, after the Ombudsman forwarded his findings to the Permanent Commission Against Corruption, Ian Borg avoided giving a clear answer. “When the final report is out, I will shoulder the responsibility accordingly,” he said.

In a reaction, the Nationalist Party called on Muscat to suspend Borg pending the investigation.

Arguing that Muscat did not have “the political courage to do what is right”, the PN said Borg should shoulder responsibility himself and resign.

“This is common sense and is clear to everyone. Just like it is clear that [parliamentary secretary] Michael Falzon should resign. This race to the bottom must stop and the country needs to return to good governance,” it said.