Gozo Minister Giovanna Debono this evening denied claims of abuse of power made by the Labour Party with regard to expropriation of land at Nadur while she was acting prime minister .
The Labour Party in a statement had demanded explanations from the Prime Minister and the Minister for Gozo over what it said was "blatant abuse of power" by the latter in the expropriation of land in Nadur last week.
The party explained that on Thursday the minister in her capacity as acting prime minister, approved the expropriation of land in Nadur beloning to seven families. Had this land been developed, the building would have spoilt the view from the residences of the minister’s driver and some of her relatives.
In 2004 the government had started to build a belvedere on the site but a court had found in favour of the families and ruled that the project was irregular since it was being built on private land. The court said the families had the right to remove street furniture on their property which formed part of the belvedere. It also established April 5 as the date when such street furniture could be removed. Yet a few hours before the court ruling was to be carried out, Mrs Debono approved the expropriation of the site, the MLP said.
Although this abuse had been known for days, the prime minister had still said nothing about it, the MLP observed. Nor had the minister explained her actions, as she was expected to do, the MLP said.
The Ministry for Gozo in a reaction stressed that at no point, during her acting appointment, was Mrs Debono approached or requested to take any decision regarding the case alleged by the MLP.
“In fact, the procedures involving cases of land expropriation for public use, in no way involve the Office of the Prime Minister. So much so, that notice no: 285 published in the Government Gazette of the 3rd April 2008, which refers to the ‘Acquisition of land’ in question, was signed by the President of Malta.”
Regarding the alleged denial of a family’s right to build a dwelling on the land in question, the ministry said that according to the Local Plan for Gozo and Comino the land in question was clearly identified as a ‘Green Area’ on Map 14.7-C .