The Maltese version of the latest legal notice governing the cash-for-citizenship scheme does not match the English text, as the former specifies property must be retained for a maximum of three years while the latter says five.
The discrepancy was immediately acknowledged by Parliamentary Secretary for Justice Owen Bonnici, who said it was a “typing error” that would be “rectified without delay”.
If an amendment is published, this would be the government’s fourth legal notice in connection with the scheme.
However, the parliamentary secretary said there will be no need to do so “as our legal system has a mechanism in place which allows for corrections to be made in case of typing errors such as this one”.
When the government anno-unced the revamped Individual Investor Programme two days before Christmas, it specified applicants had to purchase property worth €350,000 or a rental agreement of at least €16,000.
The property element was introduced after criticism that the rich could simply purchase Maltese – and therefore European – citizenship for €650,000 without needing any connection to the island.
The government also introduced a €150,000 investment in bonds. The property condition stipulated that applicants must retain their investments and property for a period of five years.
However, the legal notice published on Tuesday reduced this to three years in the Maltese version.
The Maltese constitution states that while every law is enacted in both the Maltese and English languages, in case of any conflict between the texts it is the Maltese text that prevails.
But this will not be necessary as Dr Bonnici admitted to Times of Malta that the error had been made in the second legal notice published the day after the announcement in December.
“A typing error in the preparation of the Maltese version occurred in the notice published on December 24, 2013. This was carried forward in the version published on Tuesday. This error will be rectified without delay. The English version reflects the correct position,” Dr Bonnici said.
Nationalist MP Jason Azzopardi, who pinpointed the discrepancy, claimed the difference was “dishonest”.
“The property acquisition period is for three years only,” Dr Azzopardi said in a status he posted on Facebook, adding that the Maltese translation was deliberately misleading.
“The government did not tell anyone and they hid it from everyone so that nobody notices. Do they have any shame? More amendments are needed to the law because this government is fooling the Maltese and the European Commission,” he wrote.
The Nationalist Party echoed this view, adding that Prime Minister Joseph Muscat’s government was a “comedy of errors”.
In a statement, the Opposition said the government will have to again amend the law on the citizenship scheme, fewer than 48 hours after it published the third legal notice.
It questioned what would have happened had no one realised about the mistake at this stage.
“This comedy was continuing to destroy Malta’s reputation and uncovering the government’s incompetence,” the PN said.