The architect behind the valuation for the controversial Café Premier buy-out has been appointed to the Planning Authority board in a reshuffle that also sees marine archaeology expert Timmy Gambin leaving the post.
Two new appointments to the Planning Board – which decides on major development applications – were announced in The Government Gazette this week after the expiration of its members’ three-year terms.
Architects Duncan Mifsud and Deborah Busuttil, a member of the Transport Malta board, replace Prof. Gambin and lawyer Desiree Cassar, while the remaining members of the board have all been reappointed.
Mr Mifsud, a former Labour Party election candidate in 2008, had been tasked in 2013 – as director of the Joint Office – with drawing up the valuation for an eventual €4.2 million government buy-back of the Café Premier lease.
Gambin to focus more directly on his main area of expertise
A National Audit Office investigation harshly criticised poor governance in the way the Office of the Prime Minister controlled negotiations. It did not criticise the valuation, which it said was a fair market price, but expressed reservations over whether it represented value for money. Mr Mifsud has also served as chairman of a government committee tasked with evaluating major land reclamation proposals submitted in 2013 after a call for expressions of interest, as well as on other government boards and bodies.
Meanwhile, Prof. Gambin, who was considered one of the more environmentally-minded voices on the board and who is stepping down after his three-year term, told the Times of Malta yesterday the move was related to his taking up a new post in underwater heritage at Heritage Malta.
This, he said, would allow him to focus more directly on his main area of expertise.
Apart from the two new appointees, the rest of the board is made up of chairman Vince Cassar, deputy chair Elizabeth Ellul, and government appointees Jacqueline Gili, Simone Mousu, Ivan Tabone, Matthew Pace and Joseph Brincat.
It also includes Labour MP Clayton Bartolo, Nationalist MP Marthese Portelli, Environment and Resources Authority chairman Victor Axia, and NGO representative Annick Bonello.