Justice shadow minister Jason Azzopardi this morning called on the Police Commissioner to extend the investigation following the National Audit Office report on the Gaffarena scandal to Castille “where the scandal was hatched”.

Addressing a news conference, he presented the media with 20 points taken from the National Audit Office report on the Gaffarena scandal, which he said confirmed that the present government was the most corrupt in history and showed “unequivocal institutional corruption”.

In a 129-page report, the NAO concluded there was collusion between officials at the Government Property Department, Parliamentary Secretary Michael Falzon and businessman Mark Gaffarena.

The scandal, revealed by The Sunday Times of Malta, saw Mr Gaffarena acquire €3.4 million in land and cash from the government for the expropriation of half a building in Valletta valued at some €900,000.

Dr Azzopardi insisted that although the word used by the NAO was “collusion”, it was a form of corruption.

He said the report found that:

* Minutes had been changed;

* The expropriation had been instigated by Mr Gaffarena and not the government;

* The quotation on the two properties given as payment for the second quarter of the building was made before Mr Gaffarena bought this particular quarter, which he bought because he knew the government would be expropriating;

* The politician met Mr Gaffarena at Castille and sent the “kings of the Lands” to accompany him;

* The government did not consider alternatives to the sale of half the building;

* Castille accepted Mr Gaffarena’s suggestion that half a building was good for a museum or a ministry;

* There was no public purpose for the government to buy half a building;

*The politician failed to absolutely verify if there was public purpose;

* Nothing tangible was bought and only the two one-fourth undivided shares owned by Mr Gaffarena were bought;

* No minutes of the meetings with Mr Gaffarena were kept;

* The Lands Department lied to the auditor when it said that only a quarter of the property was bought because it had no funds when it had enough to buy all the building at one go;

* The politician signed twice in two months to buy a fourth of undivided shares from the same person without verifying public purpose;

* No value estimate was made of the building as a historical building, when this would have meant saving money;

* The politician was warned several times by two senior Land officials who expressed major reservations and concern;

* The deals were made at phenomenal speed;

*There was collusion with Mr Gaffarena;

* It was Mr Gaffarena who selected the lands he wanted from the government;

* Castille and Lands officials declared to the Auditor General they did not discuss what public purpose there could be behind the expropriation; and

* The politician was criticised by the auditor general that he failed to safeguard the national interest.

Asked who at Castille should be investigated, whether it was just the Parliamentary Secretary’s office or even higher up, Dr Azzopardi said “Castille is a ministry and the buck stops with the minister, who in this case is the Prime Minister”.