Minister calls out Said over ‘pre-electoral' housing deal

Social welfare minister Michael Farrugia lashed out at Opposition MP and former justice minister Chris Said for green-lighting the sale of government land that had been earmarked for a social housing project on the eve of the last election.

“Said had known full well that around 3,000 people were on the waiting list for social housing, but he agreed to release this land to a third party rather than see that it be used to construct apartments for vulnerable people,” Farrugia said during a parliamentary debate on the budget for the Housing Authority.

The Naxxar land in question, 938 square metres, had been expropriated by the government in 1996 to develop social housing.

In 2002 and in 2006, the heirs of the land’s original owner had approached the government expressing interest in buying the land but the government had turned down the offer. In both instances it had argued that the plot was required for social housing, developing 15 residences and 13 garages.

Between 2007 and 2011, as the heirs kept on insisting for the land, the Housing Authority reiterated that construction work was set to start.

However, later correspondence between then Housing Authority CEO Albert Buttigieg and Chris Said that the authority “has no future plans to develop land at Tal-Fiddien in Naxxar”.

Said and Buttigieg instructed the then director general of the GPD to “release this land” to the heirs, and the agreement between them and the Lands Department was signed on 7 March 2013, two days before the general election.

“The transfer of land should have been carried out through a contract or a lgal notice, but there wasn’t enough time for these procedures to have been carried out ahead of the election,” Farrugia said. “Therefore, Said skipped the basic procedures. The transfer is defective and can constitute an irregularity committed on the eve of the election. The heirs weren’t aware of government procedures, meaning that responsibility falls squarely on the shoulders on the previous administration.”

He added that the Labour government will invest €50 million into the development of new social housing blocks across Malta and Gozo.