The court case filed by the Prime Minister to recoup the Gaffarena millions and land did not make sense because it was a case filed by the Prime Minister against the government, which he represented, Opposition leader Simon Busuttil said this evening.
Speaking on Net TV’s programme Iswed fuq l-Abjad, Dr Busuttil said: “If the Attorney General would be defending the government, who would be defending the Prime Minister?” The action taken was all an act which did not make sense.
The government paid €1.65 million for part ownership of a Valletta property that Mark Gaffarena bought for a fraction of the price just weeks earlier. He made a profit of €685,000 in less than two months, apart from acquiring parcels of land in exchange equivalent to the size of more than 10 football pitches.
It was subsequently reported that the land given to Mr Gaffarena was worth substantially more than its stated value.
A damning report by the Auditor General found that the public interest was not safeguarded in the expropriation deals. The report led to the resignation of Parliamentary Secretary Michael Falzon.
Dr Busuttil criticised Dr Muscat for dragging his feet and only taking action at the very last minute and when he had no other choice but to do so.
The Prime Minister, he said, had received another similar report he commissioned internally which had arrived at the same conclusions.
“Shouldn’t he have at least suspended the Parliamentary Secretary until the issue was closed,” Dr Busuttil asked.
Asked whether he was worried by the difference in trust ratings between him and the Prime Minister, Dr Busuttil said he was not because while the Prime Minister had started from up high, with a vote difference of 36,000, he started from down below.
Surveys, he said, showed that both the vote difference and the trust ratings between him and the Prime Minister had gone down substantially.
Dr Busuttil said that while soon after the election the people took it forgranted that the Nationalists would have 10 years in Opposition, they no longer did so.
“I am doing my utmost to win the people’s confidence,” Dr Busuttil said.