We have been led to believe that had there been an authority in place, the scandals that have brought the Land Department to its knees over the past four years would have been avoided. This cannot be any further from the truth.

The Land Department has never seen, since our nation became an independent state, as much political interference directly from Castille as has been the case throughout this administration. As a result, Deborah Schembri is my third counterpart in as many years, having been sworn in after her predecessor’s involvement in the Gaffarena scandal.

In keeping the Land Department under the Prime Minister’s direct supervision, Joseph Muscat has managed to scrape through the Café Premier scandal. Unlike Michael Falzon, the Prime Minister is politically untouchable, and was able to escape unscathed from a scandal which saw the Labour government authorising a transaction worth €4.2 million for the acquisition of Café Premier, by means of an e-mail sent from the Prime Minister’s personal gmail account.

Political interference has reached such unacceptable levels under this administration that the former Lands Commissioner, an experienced and widely respected civil servant, could not take it any longer, and decided to resign half way through his tenure.

All scandals and resignations in which this department became embroiled over the past four years were therefore a result of excessive political interference on the part of the government. The setting upof the Lands Authority is being portrayed by the Labour government as the solution to all this.

The crux of the matter, however, lies in the composition of the board of governors, set up to oversee the operations of the newly set up authority and to decide on matters of particular importance in a collective manner. The government felt it should appoint eight of the nine members on this board. As if this weren’t sufficient enough to retain absolute and direct control over the functioning of the new authority, the Prime Minister felt it was also necessary to appoint a former Labour candidate to the position of chief executive officer.

The selection of the board of governors rests with the Prime Minister, but we will not allow him to use the Opposition as an accomplice in a sham authority

During the parliamentary debate on the Lands Authority Bill, the Nationalist Party proposed that the architect, auditor and the notary on the board of governors ought to be nominated by the respective (and autonomous) professional bodies, in an attempt to give the board the independence and transparency that it merits.

We sought to have the architect appointed by the Chamber of Architects, the lawyer by the Chamber of Advocates, and the auditor by the Institute of Accountants. The Chamber of Architects had acknowledged our proposal, saying this would “ensure independence from the government of the day”. Besides entrusting and empowering the professional bodies by involving them in the subsidiarity of power, our proposal would have instilled transparency and would have restored public trust in a department which has lost both in the eyes of the public.

In voting against our proposal, Muscat’s intentions have been crystallised. He wants to retain the status quo in so far as political interference is concerned.

This has been evidently manifested in the court case which the PN parliamentary group has instituted against the General Workers’ Union, and the then Lands Commissioner (now the responsibility of the board of governors) for the sub-leasing of parts of its headquarters in Valletta, in breach of a contract with the government and in relation to conditions imposed through a parliamentary resolution.

The Opposition did what the government should have done more than a year ago, following a report by the Auditor General which confirmed the irregularities and recommended that action is taken. This is as yet an excellent example of how the Land Department has been taken over by political interference. It goes without saying that officials at the Land Department will not dare take this GWU case forward, fearing they would end up sidelined by the political class.

Schembri’s self-proclaimed “controversial” choice of appointing retired judge Lino Farrugia Sacco as chairman is perplexing to say the least, particularly at this juncture when the department is at its lowest ebb. It is incomprehensible how a retired judge, with two motions of impeachment to his name from two prime ministers hailing from different political parties, was considered to be the best candidate for this post.

I sympathise with all the marginalised civil servants at the Land Department, some of whom have already seen an end to their career progression, in particular those currently in headship positions.

This Tagħna Lkoll government has found them unsuitable for the top positions, in spite of long years of service and experience within the department, and in spite of the fact they are fully qualified for the positions they hold.

The selection of the board of governors rests with Muscat, but we will not allow him to use the Opposition as an accomplice in a sham authority. If he wants to continue delving into further scandals, he will be doing it alone. In the meantime, we will continue to follow closely decisions that will be taken by the new board to ensure public property is safeguarded.

Ryan Callus is Opposition spokesman on planning, lands, environment and infrastructure.