What the Sunday papers say…

MaltaToday

Fishermen have claimed that the market value attributed to the 2014 fish landings by lampara vessels is around 10 times higher than the true value of the catches.

In another story, it reveals that Banif Bank has asked the Nationalist Party to pay over €187,000 for works carried out by the bank on the PN’s party club in Siggiewi.

Illum

New parliamentary secretary for planning Deborah Schembri insisted that she will remove any Lands Department employee who abuses of their position. She added that the government’s planned revamp of the beleaguered department will not be a “superficial exercise” conducted in the wake of the Gaffarena expropriation saga but rather “a radical reform that has long been needed”.

The Sunday Times of Malta

Almost two-thirds of the stone cut from a Qala quarry to clad the new Parliament building in Valletta have failed rigorous tests, meaning that a safety certification cannot be issued. CFF Filiberti, the Italian company that cut and shaped the stonework, has taken the matter to court, holding the Maltese stone supplier responsible for potential damages.

The Malta Independent on Sunday

The land on which the National Pool was constructed in 1993 was only expropriated from the Borg Olivier Family after the complex had already been built and inaugurated – effectively increasing the value of the land from just over €20,000 to over €2.2 million.

It-Torca

The Gozo Youth Council lost €800 that it had collected during a fund-raising sports event. The GWU-owned newspaper focuses its criticism on PN election candidate Ryan Mercieca, the council’s project manager.

Il-Mument

The PN owned newspaper cites sources close to the Labour Party as saying that Michael Falzon had insisted on his innocence in the Gaffarena expropriation saga in a heated meeting with Prime Minister Joseph Muscat, held just before it was publicly announced that Falzon would resign as parliamentary secretary.

Kullhadd

The previous Nationalist administration had issued a circular to ministers and parliamentary secretaries in February 2013, encouraging them to purchase their second cars from government.