Opposition leader Simon Busuttil this morning urged the Prime Ministry to publish the findings of a government inquiry on the controversial €1.65 million expropriation deal for half a property in Old Mint Street in Valletta.
Last June the Internal Audit and Investigation Department had been asked to probe the agreement for which Mark Gaffarena got cash and land in exchange.
Referring to recent reports that the inquiry had been concluded, Dr Busuttil asked “what is the Prime Minister waiting for to publish the IAID report?”
Speaking during a short telephone interview on Radio 101, the Opposition leader remarked that the list of scandals in Labour's 25 months, would have been unimaginable in 25 years of Nationalist administration.
“This is the result of Labour’s colonisation of public entities by deploying its own people,” he added.
Not only was Labour’s meritocracy pledge thrown out of the window, this ‘colonisation’ was fuelling institutionalised meritocracy, he said. Dr Busuttil noted that taxpayers were the one who were funding these scandals.
The Opposition leader said that had he been in the Prime Minister’s shoes he would have reversed the Gaffarena deal, asked Lands Parliamentary Secretary Michael Falzon to resign and taken disciplinary action against inspector Roderick Zammit, and former police commissioner Ray Zammit over other scandals.
Dr Busuttil also touched on the scam involving former Labour candidate Joe Sammut, who is accused of helping Libyans set up companies in Malta to obtain residency permits using forged documents and fraudulent means.
“To date we do not known how many visas and residency permits have been issued [in this manner] and none have been revoked,” he said.
Dr Busuttil also criticised the government for the lack of urgency shown to convene the national security committee, which will meet on September 10 - three weeks after the scandal broke.
The Opposition leader also lashed out at the government for not reducing fuel prices, in the wake of the fact that the price of oil had gone down drastically since Labour was elected to power. He also noted that government was completely at a loss of how to deal with the ever-increasing traffic on Maltese roads.