Minister Helena Dalli’s claim that the assets she declared ‘hidden’ under companies could easily be verified by the public turns out to be an expensive and arduous process, The Sunday Times of Malta can reveal.
The Civil Rights Minister has refused to answer this newspaper’s questions on the number of properties held under the companies listed in her declaration of assets.
The question was raised after she declared that she did not own the Żejtun property where works were carried out despite an enforcement notice by the planning authority.
Dr Dalli said the property was not owned by her but by one of her companies, Pada Builders Limited. When pressed why she had not declared this property in her declaration of assets, she said the company’s assets were “freely traceable” through the public registry and the Malta Financial Services Authority.
The Sunday Times of Malta went through the process any citizen would have to undergo if attempting to check the real assets held by a minister through the companies listed in their declaration of assets.
The four companies Dr Dalli listed – Pada Builders Limited, Elcar Developments Limited, PR Company Limited and Blacktop Limited – had not submitted updated audited accounts to the MFSA in defiance of the Companies Act. This was confirmed by the MFSA.
An up-to-date picture of these companies’ performance could therefore not be assessed. In any case, specific properties held by the companies cannot be traced through audited accounts.
The Sunday Times of Malta then went to the public registry but any citizen attempting to find out what properties were held by the four companies held by the minister would have to fork out hundreds, possibly thousands, of euros.
When this newspaper revealed that works were being carried out on her Żejtun property on which Mepa had served an enforcement notice in 2011, Dr Dalli said she was not aware of the works even though the property stands a few metres from where she resides.
The vehicles on site while illegal works were ongoing belong to Pada Builders Limited. The minister said a promise of sale agreement had been made on the farmhouse and therefore she was not responsible.
Yet, the Opposition pointed out that the property still belonged to the minister until a transfer of ownership is made, and called for her resignation.
She has so far refused to heed calls to publish the promise of sale agreement.
Meanwhile, the Prime Minister yesterday continued to stand by his minister, saying the works were being carried out by the person who was buying the property. He said he had been informed this was the norm when there was a promise of sale agreement.
However, this goes against normal procedure where “the sale of a property is recognised when the sales contract is signed and the title passes to the purchaser” – this excerpt is taken from the audited accounts of one of the minister’s several construction companies.
As to the machinery on site, the Prime Minister said there was an engineer’s report confirming that this machinery was inoperable and had been dumped on site. The engineer’s report has not been made public.
Meanwhile, a Mepa spokesman told The Sunday Times of Malta that a site inspection showed “no further development works took place following the issuing of enforcement notice”, despite the evidence reported.