Police investigation on Gaffarena report should extend to Castille – PN

Shadow home affairs minister Jason Azzopardi has reiterated a call to the Commissioner of Police for an investigation into the Auditor General’s report on the Old Mint Street expropriation, that also extends to the Office of the Prime Minister.

Azzopardi listed 20 reasons he said were informed by the NAO report’s conclusions, that confirmed Joseph Muscat’s government as “the most corrupt in political history”.

Azzopardi said the NAO report had shown that minutes corresponding to the GPD’s expropriation had been tampered with; that it was not a government-initiated expropriation; Marco Gaffarena had met parliamentary secretary Michael Falzon before the expropriation; there was no public purpose for the expropriation; and there was collusion with Gaffarena.

"The circumstantial evidence in the extensive NAO report points to a corrupt deal forged inside the Office of the Prime Minister," Azzopardi said, referring to the fact that the parliamentary secretariat for lands falls under Joseph Muscat's political purview. "Collusion means institutionalised corruption."

When asked whether a police investigation should stop at members of Michael Falzon's secretariat, or whether the Prime Minister himself should be investigated, Azzopardi said: "Castille is a ministry, and the buck stops with the minister, who in this case is Joseph Muscat. Michael Falzon even said that he was 'carrying somebody else's cross'... what is he implying?'