‘Gaffarena and Falzon aide pressured me over Old Mint Street expropriation’

A former director at the Lands Department told MPs how property developer Marco Gaffarena had pressured him to get the Old Mint expropriation deal – that earned him €1.65 million in public lands and cash – done and dusted as quickly as possible.

Charles Camilleri told the public accounts committee that Gaffarena was frequently accompanied to the Lands Department by Clint Falzon, a 24-year-old aide to then planning parliamentary secretary Michael Falzon.

The PAC chose to grill Camilleri, after the former director of estate management declared such pressure in an affidavit in the aftermath of a damning NAO report, which would that the subsequent expropriation of Gaffarena’s two separate shares in a palazzo in Old Mint Street, Valletta, had been irregular.

Michael Falzon, who was forced to resign as a result of the NAO’s findings, will face the PAC next week.

Camilleri said that he was annoyed at the way Gaffarena had frequently intruded upon his workplace to ask for updates on the deal. Indeed, he had once complained about his presence to the Lands Department’s administration unit.

“There is security at the door, and the normal procedure is for them to take the details of the person at the door, ring me up, and then let the person in if I give the go-ahead,” he said. “However, I used to find Gaffarena waiting for me outside my office. When I told the security officials about it, they simply apologized and gave excuses such as that they were at the toilet.”

Camilleri told the MPs that the director general had first introduced Scerri to him as a liaison officer, leading him to take everything he said as though it were coming from the ministry.

Scerri and Gaffarena visited Camilleri in his office with an offer to expropriate his quarter of the Old Mint property. Gaffarena would later purchase a second quarter that the government would also expropriate.

Camillei said that he thought the expropriation to be a good deal as the palazzo’s other tenants had initiated court proceedings to evict government from the building – that houses the offices of the Building Industry Consultative Council.

Scerri allegedly told Camilleri not to worry about the funds and that “Michael” would decide on the expropriation, leading the Land director to assume that Falzon was on board as well.

Pressed by Opposition MP and PAC chairman Tonio Fenech why the GPD hadn’t negotiated with the other tenants at all but had gone straight to Gaffarena, Camilleri said that the latter had wanted to evict government from the building.

“The other tenants had a pending court case to evict the government from the building, so it wouldn’t have made sense to offer them to buy their share in the house,” he said, to which Fenech retorted that his argument was a mere assumption.

Gaffarena had originally come up with a list of government lands that he wanted transferred to him as compensation for the expropriation, but Scerri gave the final word.

While evaluations of those lands were ongoing, Scerri asked him to also evaluate land at Bahar ic-Caghaq and a shop in Sliema.

Camilleri recounted how Gaffarena had not pressured him over the evaluation of the Sliema shop as he had for other lands. However, he later found out that Gaffarena had personally driven a Lands draughtsman on site so as to get a status report as quickly as possible.

The valuations were conducted by architect Joseph Henry Spiteri, who had overvalued the Valletta palazzo and overvalued the government lands transferred to Gaffarena in exchange.

Camilleri said that Spiteri is an experienced architect who lectures at the university and that he didn’t question his valuations. Although he never told Gaffarena what the valuations were, the property developer found out anyway.

When questioned by justice minister Owen Bonnici, Camilleri confirmed that he had seen Spiteri conversing with Scerri but had no idea what they were discussing.

Bonnici pointed out that Camilleri had told the director general that it would be wise to consider the transaction” as the government required more properties in Valletta, and to refer the deal to Michael Falzon.

However, he denied advising the parliamentary secretary to expropriate the land, insisting that he laid out the facts and allowed him to make a decision of his own volition.