Mosta mayor Shirley Farrugia, who is at the centre of a controversy over a report commissioned two years ago, insists minutes of the local council’s meetings show councillors were kept informed all along.

On April 1, GWU daily L-Orizzont quoted Mosta councillors referring to a survey on the state of the roads in the locality, which study had been commissioned by the mayor in 2012.

Dr Farrugia was accused of conflict of interest because the survey was done by a company, MP&DC, owned by her husband, an architect. The Nationalist mayor also has a stake in the company.

“The local council minutes show I informed the councillors I had personally commissioned the survey soon after the election. Now, these allegations are surfacing in the run-up to [Saturday’s] election,” Dr Farrugia said, noting she had announced months ago she was not seeking re-election.

The issue was also raised in a parliamentary question which Labour MP Anthony Agius Decelis put to Justice Minister Owen Bonnici, who referred to the case as “a serious matter”.

The media report on the matter raised a number of points, quoting councillors saying they had never seen the report or were informed that it had been commissioned.

They also alleged a conflict of interest saying they had not been told Dr Farrugia and her husband owned the company.

The councillors also contested the selection of the roads made as a result of the assessment.

The law regulating local councils defines a conflict of interest as one where financial benefit is gained by a councillor or relative by means of a council’s contract. Dr Farrugia has consistently said the company was not paid for the assessment and that the survey was done out of her own pocket.

The minutes make no reference to any councillor questioning the content of the report or who prepared it

The fact that no payment was made is uncontested and is confirmed by minutes of a meeting held on August 8, 2012.

In one of the first meetings the council had a month following the last local council elections, on April 12, 2012, Dr Farrugia told the councillors a report on the locality’s roads was being prepared.

On May 3 that same year, she tabled the report, according to the minutes. The name of the company features on the front page of the report. Details on company owners can be easily checked on official records available at the Malta Financial Services Authority.

The minutes make no reference to any councillor questioning the content of the report or who prepared it. They record that the mayor made it clear that she had personally commissioned the report.

The Local Government Department monitors local councils’ operations and can deduct any council’s financial allocation whenever illegal or irregular payments are noticed. The department received the survey in 2012 and no action about any apparent wrongdoing was taken.

On the basis of the survey’s outcome, the council patched 18 roads throughout the locality. These were either major roads or those surrounding schools and playgrounds.

The minutes show the selection of the roads was discussed with councillors although it has been alleged that it was the mayor who decided.

During the discussion, according to the minutes, Labour councillors only contested why two roads – Triq id-Dawr and Triq Strinġell – had not been included. These two roads surround the Mosta housing estate. The government last month moved in to resurface these roads, which are now fully asphalted and among the best in the locality.

Soon after, Local Councils Minister Owen Bonnici noted that Joseph Muscat had visited Triq id-Dawr in February 2012, when he was still leader of the Opposition, and promised to carry out works in the road if the PL was elected to government. He said the government kept its promise.

Triq id-Dawr was the subject of an inquiry in 2012 focusing on previous Labour Mosta mayor Paul Chetcuti Caruana. It found he had commissioned work two weeks before the election without the council’s approval and with no available funds.

The Police Commissioner and the Attorney General were asked to follow up the matter but nothing came out of it since.

Mosta is an important locality for both political parties in Saturday’s local elections.