Parliamentary Secretary Ian Borg took out two loans of €331,310 as a first-time buyer to fund the purchase and construction of his controversial property in Rabat.

The Times of Malta queried Dr Borg’s loan facility given that when the loan was taken out in 2014, at the age of 27, his declared income to the taxman amounted to €49,000.

Parliamentary Secretary Ian Borg. Photo: Darrin Zammit Lupi

This paper also questioned how he qualified as a first-time buyer in view of his declared ownership of a Dingli apartment and two offices.

Dr Borg said the loan was based both on his income in 2014 and on future income during the next 37 years of the loan period. The Dingli apartment was donated to him in 2011 by his parents.

Dr Borg said he had used €245,000 of the available loan facility of €331,310 thus far.

While not qualifying for the government’s first time-buyer scheme, Dr Borg said he qualified as a first-time buyer in banking terms because it was his first home loan.

“My monthly loan repayments are proportionate to my current earned income. Hence, the two facilities are in line with prevailing normal banking terms and conditions.

“In fact, through a simple search on Bank of Valletta’s website, one finds an offer which is even more favourable than the one I contracted,” Dr Borg said.

He said the Rabat property was bought in two lots, one for €12,800 in August 2013 and another for €8,000 in May 2014.

A simple search on Bank of Valletta’s website, one finds an offer which is even more favourable than the one I contracted

Asked how he managed to fund the purchase since he declared to Parliament bank deposits of €10,000 at the end of December 2012, Dr Borg said, come August 2013, he had enough money in his account having already been in office for six months as a parliamentary secretary.

“With regard to the second down payment of €8,000 carried out in May 2014, I already had a bank deposit as declared in Parliament of circa €15,000 on December 31, 2013, which was already sufficient to pay the said €8,000 in May 2014.

“Besides that, one has to factor in the income from the salary of a parliamentary secretary between the months of January and May of the same 2014,” Dr Borg said.

He declared earnings of €57,000 last year.

Last December, then ombudsman Joseph Said Pullicino said his office had concluded that the permit issued for the construction of Dr Borg’s property was not regular and needed to be corrected.

The Ombudsman recommended a review of Dr Borg’s permit for the construction of the Rabat dwelling after having established that “policies were incorrectly applied by Mepa”.

The report was later endorsed by the Commission against Corruption.

Mepa had rejected such conclusions and decided not to review the permit and, according to the Ombudsman, the Prime Minster also failed to order a review of Dr Borg’s permit.

Dr Borg last week tabled in Parliament invoices for the construction works on the property, including those of Redmap Projects Ltd, which is owned by Pierre Sladden.

Mr Sladden was mentioned in the Panama Papers as having used Nexia BT and Mossack Fonseca to open a company in the tax haven of the British Virgin Islands.

Mr Sladden also carried out works on deputy Nationalist Party leader Mario de Marco’s property. The works began in 2011 and the €34,000 invoice was paid in 2016 following the emergence of Mr Sladden’s name in the Panama Papers.

Dr de Marco told this paper he would be making the invoices public “in the appropriate fora”, indicating that he would be taking legal action against the Labour Party’s allegations that the works carried out by Mr Sladden were meant to be a gift.

Redmap had also been sub-contracted to do works on the new Progress Press premises on the Mrieħel Bypass.

jacob.borg@timesofmalta.com