The government wants Marco Gaffarena to stop any further development on public property in Sliema that was supposed to be returned to the State following the 2015 Valletta deal scandal.

Times of Malta is informed the Lands Authority has filed a judicial letter in court asking Mr Gaffarena and his wife to desist from doing any further work on the public property. This followed a report that appeared on The Sunday Times of Malta titled ‘Gaffarena developing government property’.

Marco Gaffarena

The regulator also held the Gaffarenas responsible for any damage resulting from their actions.

A spokesman for the lands watchdog confirmed that a judicial letter was filed and noted the government was also considering “further action”.

The Sunday Times of Malta reported that although the court had ordered Mr Gaffarena in 2016 to return the property to the government, this did not happen.

Instead, the public property in question appeared in plans submitted by Mr Gaffarena to develop a prime site in Sliema into luxury apartments. Construction work had already started.

The property, a shop in Manuel Dimech Street, formed part of a deal struck with the government in 2015 through which Mr Gaffarena acquired over €3 million in cash and public land in exchange for half a palazzo in Old Mint Street, Valletta.

The deal was struck down by the court after the National Audit Office concluded that the negotiations between the government and Mr Gaffarena were illegal.

Prime Minister Joseph Muscat, who following the court decision had declared he had won the case he had instituted “to protect the public interest”, said on Monday he learned about the latest developments through The Sunday Times of Malta. He said he had given instructions to look into the matter.

A few weeks before the report appeared on The Sunday Times of Malta, a spokesman for the Office of the Prime Minister said the government had taken back the public property involved in the Valletta deal.

The government had taken back the public property involved

The Lands Authority had told The Sunday Times of Malta that, although Mr Gaffarena had filed an appeal against the court decision, which was still pending, an injunction had been issued safeguarding any transfer of property involved in the case.

Initially, the regulator said the development in Sliema did not involve the government-owned shop but an adjacent property. However, when the newspaper pointed that this was not the case, a spokesman said that the lands watchdog was not aware of the development.

The 2016 investigation by the Auditor General had led to then planning parliamentary secretary Michael Falzon to step down, as also did the head of the estate management division at the now defunct lands department, Carmel Camilleri.

Dr Falzon was made Cabinet minister after the 2017 election and Mr Camilleri, who the Auditor General named as one of the protagonists of the scandal, joined the Lands Authority and was recently appointed acting head of the same office he used to run during the Valletta property scandal.

Dr Muscat told the Times of Malta that he did not know anything about Mr Camilleri’s latest promotion.

Read: How the Michael Falzon/Gaffarena scandal developed