The Nationalist Party wants the police to probe the “collusion” between the Office of the Prime Minster and the Gaffarena family over the shady deal on a property in Old Mint Street, Valletta.

Addressing a press conference in front of the police headquarters in Floriana, PN deputy leader Beppe Fenech Adami said it was unacceptable in a democratic society that the police should receive orders from the Prime Minister on how to conduct investigations.

Just a few hours after the publication of a report by the National Audit Office on the deal and the resignation of former planning parliamentary secretary Michael Falzon last week, the police went to the offices of the Land Department in Valletta to confiscate files and conserve evidence.

Dr Fenech Adami criticised the police for taking so long to start investigating the case saying the delay left ample time for whoever wanted to hide any evidence.

“Now everyone knows that the Gaffarena scandal was conceived at the offices of the Prime Minister. This means that the police should also investigate the Office of the Prime Minister and not treat all Land Department employees as being corrupt,” he said.

Dr Fenech Adami noted that the police had a conflict of interest because when the whole scandal surfaced last year the economic crimes unit of the police was headed by two inspectors who had business connections with the Gaffarenas.

An inquiry earlier this year found that former acting police commissioner Ray Zammit and his sons, one a former inspector and the other who still serves in the force, had business connections with the Gaffarena family.

“All this shows that, in less than three years, the Gaffarenas managed to control the Land Department, the police and Castille,” Dr Fenech Adami charged.

He said the latest scandal demonstrated that Joseph Muscat was heading a government “immersed in institutional corruption”.