Updated | Falzon says Lands director's Gaffarena affidavit ‘proves his point’
National Audit Office to meet police's economic crimes unit to discuss former Lands director's affidavit that claimed threats and undue pressure by Marco Gaffarena and office of former parliamentary secretary Micahel Falzon
Last updated on 7 March 2016, 9:32pm
Staff Reporter
Staff Reporter
2 min read
Police officer stands outside the Lands Department a day after the publication of an inquiry into the Gaffarena expropriation case
Former planning parliamentary secretary Micahel Falzon insisted that an affidavit by a former Lands Department director on the Gaffarena expropriation scandal “proves his point that he wasn’t forced to sign the deal”.
“I will make a statement on the affidavit tomorrow, but I can say from now that it makes it abundantly clear that nobody forced him to write what he did,” he said.
He was speaking in Parliament on a point of order in response to PN deputy leader Beppe Fenech Adami who said the affidavit had proved that Falzon’s office had applied pressure on the Lands Department to sign the expropriation deal.
“When you are in a hole, stop digging,” the deputy leader advised Falzon.
Earlier, the Auditor General revealed that the police will investigate an affidavit by a former Lands Department director, who said he felt threatened and pressured by the office of former parliamentary secretary Michael Falzon to steam ahead with the expropriation of half a house from property developer Marco Gaffarena.
Auditor General Anthony Mifsud told a Public Accounts Committee meeting that the police’s Economic Crimes Unit had requested a meeting with his office, after Carmel Camilleri’s affidavit was published in the press.
The meeting will be held tomorrow.
Mifsud said that Camilleri’s sworn statement didn’t change anything from the NAO’s conclusions in its investigation into the case, that ultimately led to Falzon’s resignation as parliamentary secretary.
Carmel Camilleri, former director of estate management, said in his eight-page affidavit that Gaffarena would plant himself on a desk outside the corridor of his office, waiting for him to inform him on the progress of his expropriation request – that ultimately earned him €1.65 million in public lands and cash.
Clint Scerri, back then the aide to Michael Falzon accompanied Gaffarena several times to the Lands Department, insisting with Camilleri to draft minutes for Falzon to approve on the spot
