Whistleblower claims discriminatory and selective campaign linked to lan Borg
stating: “... I would have preferred not creating these problems from the very beginning – however I was totally unaware of all this...” and on this basis, on 14 August 2010, Mr Ciantar withdrew his request for the investigation, paving the way for the Dingli council to receive €436,000 in EU agricultural funds just three days later, on 17 August 2010, for the Dingli Heritage Trail.
But it seems that after Dr Borg had secured the funds for his council and the developments he had planned, in 2012 Dr Borg nevertheless spoke to the media to insist on opening Mr Ciantar’s property.
A case of double standards?
Mr Ciantar argues that while this was going on about his family’s Rabat farm, and while Dr Borg was seeking cooperation from the Ramblers to open the Ciantars’ property, Dr Borg did not route the Dingli Heritage Trail through Dingli’s own flagship medieval rural property known as Diar il-Bniet.
Mr Ciantar says that during Dr Borg’s tenure as Dingli mayor, close relatives of Dr Borg had acquired a major interest in that medieval property and this should have facilitated Dr Borg’s routing of the heritage trail through that property with EU funds.
Diar il-Bniet is an agricultural estate immersed in a scenic valley located next to Dingli and scheduled by Mepa in 2012. The estate belonged to the Barony of Inguanez, and has a written feudal history from the 1300s which is even available on the internet. There are also a number of old farm rooms on the property.
Mr Ciantar adds that after Dr Borg became Parliamentary Secretary Responsible for EU Funds in 2013/3014, Mifsud Local Enterprise Ltd, a company owned by Dr Borg’s close relatives who hold the interest in Diar il-Bniet, was listed as the beneficiary of around €102,000 of EU Agricultural funds under the Measure 313 2nd Call for the Encouragement of Tourism Activities, a rerun of the scheme under which Dr Borg’s Dingli council had benefited from EU funds for its heritage trail in 2010. The 2nd Call was administered by the North West Local Action Group. According to the 2nd Call scheme criteria, the funds were available to projects such as the development or upgrade of parks and paths to scenic areas, and the Mgarr Local Council benefited under the scheme for a heritage trail.
Mr Ciantar claims that according to sensitive documents he holds and other declarations in the media, Mifsud Local Enterprise’s project should have consisted of an “agro-tourism” operation with investment in paths, a recreational area, benches, signs and a shop in the medieval Diar il-Bniet estate. But when Mifsud Local Enterprise inaugurated its project on 26 January 2014, the project only consisted of a restaurant and ‘farm shop’ on Dingli’s Main Street, opposite a public primary school, where, according to the Local Plan, it is not possible to conduct agro-tourism or to open a restaurant and where the notion of a ‘farm shop’ is unreasonable.
The Main Street premises were renamed “Diar il-Bniet.” Mr Ciantar states that there is no public evidence of the intended investments on the medieval estate, and no Mepa permits issued for those works in the scheduled ODZ property. An old “Diar il-Bniet” sign at the entrance of the estate was recently removed. A permit for the rehabilitation of the Main Street outlet was issued four months after the inauguration date, and the inauguration itself was advertised in the media on 19 and 20 January 2014, while the Mepa approved the rehabilitation days later, on 22 January 2014.
Mr Ciantar questions if Dr Borg and the Ramblers will call for public access to Diar il-Bniet.
‘Dingli Interpretation Centre’ becomes a restaurant on a ‘gigantic ‘agro-tourism’ project’
Turning to the ‘Dingli Interpretation Centre’, Mr Ciantar argues that his demand for investigations is justified because it was his withdrawal of his request for investigation into acts of Dr Borg in 2010 that permitted the Dingli council to benefit from €436,000 of EU agricultural funds which would have been lost if an investigation into Dr Borg’s acts was carried out.
Mr Ciantar also argues that had he not resisted Dr Borg’s attempts, EU agricultural funds intended to help rural farms and families like his own would have led to property being taken away from his family for the benefit of what is now a restaurant – about which Ciantar has made allegations of fraud and corruption with the authorities – adding that, since 2009, he has been deprived from becoming a full-time farmer on his property because his legal rights to the property have been threatened.
Mr Ciantar describes the ‘Dingli Interpretation Centre’ and its Dingli Heritage Trail as, “Effectively one gigantic ‘agrotourism’ project enclosing all Dingli territory and claiming heritage for their benefit, where the immediately measurable benefits, rather than accruing to the rural farmers and rural people, accrue to a panoramic restaurant run by a one-man company.”
Mr Ciantar asks the Ramblers what action they have taken about the alleged misappropriation of property at the ‘Dingli Interpretation Centre’.
Callus property is another property altogether
Mr Ciantar also rejected the claim that his property once belonged to Guzeppi Callus – a historic person. Mr Ciantar states that since 2002, research by Professor Stanley Fiorini was published in a book coordinated by Evarist Bartolo, now Minister for Education, showing that the Callus property is an altogether different property, and that he had published research to support Prof. Fiorini’s findings on 2 June 2012 in The Sunday Times, which has now been confirmed to him by Prof. Keith Buhagiar of the University of Malta.
Mr Ciantar asks if the Ramblers and Dr Borg will demand public access to the Callus property and what action Alex Vella of the Ramblers took as a member of the Mepa board to schedule that property.
Dr Borg urged to join request for investigations
Mr Ciantar says that he is not demanding public access into any else’s property, because “I respect privately held agricultural property, which in accordance with internationally accepted policy, is in the public interest, and I do not wish for others what I do not wish for myself and I am not vindictive.” However, he invited Dr Borg to join him in asking for independent investigations into his allegations about the ‘Dingli Interpretation Centre’ and the facts of the Measure 313 2nd Call scheme, with Mr Ciantar offering to make himself available as key witness.
Noel Ciantar, a man whose farming family has held legal titles on an agricultural property at Wied Hazrun, sometimes called is-Simblija, in Rabat for generations, is claiming that a campaign by the Ramblers Association attacking his family’s legal rights on the property and demanding that he gives public access to his family’s farming property is a case of discriminatory and selective targeting and was instigated by Dr Ian Borg when he was Mayor of Dingli.
The campaign, according to Mr Ciantar, is intrinsically linked to Mayor Borg’s pet projects of the Dingli Heritage Trail and the integral ‘Dingli Interpretation Centre’ – both EU funded projects – about which Mr Ciantar has demanded Maltese and EU authorities to conduct formal investigations after the centre was turned into a restaurant.
Mr Ciantar claims the campaign is not addressing a general principle to all old property, but is uniquely targeted to his family’s property, adding that he is not aware of any other similar campaign in which any ‘urban elite’, politicians, the Church or government are being compelled to give public access to old properties, some of which are of Roman or medieval origins, or to publish their titles of ownership.
Mr Ciantar claims that the motives of the campaign are beyond culture or property and that it started off with false claims that Mr Ciantar’s property had been misappropriated, but has now evolved into a direct attack on Mr Ciantar’s legal property rights with the Ramblers entering Mr Ciantar’s farm property without his consent on Sunday 19 June 2016 and confronting him (as reported in the media). Mr Ciantar says that this suggests that the campaign was malicious from the start.
Ciantar involved as whistleblower in cases of alleged collusion, fraud and corruption
In January 2016, Mr Ciantar asked the authorities to investigate a case of alleged collusion, fraud, irregularities and corruption at the EU-funded ‘Dingli Interpretation Centre’, which is being operated as a full-blown restaurant. The centre was intended to be an information and education centre on the Dingli Heritage Trail, a walking route around Dingli that explores natural and built heritage for the benefit of the rural economy.
The case involves Ian Borg, now Parliamentary Secretary for EU Funds, who was then the Dingli mayor in charge of the project, in whose name the Mepa permit PA 00425/08 was issued, and under whose mayorship, since March 2012, the centre was converted into a restaurant complete with a listing on Trip Advisor.
In 2015, Mr Ciantar was also involved in a report to authorities about a Mepa permit issued to Dr Borg in the medieval estate known as Tad-Dahla, in the Santa Katerina rural settlement in Rabat, resulting in investigations by the Ombudsman and the Permanent Commission Against Corruption. Inter alia, the Ombudsman’s report had noted that Dr Borg’s screening of his application behind the name of another person constituted a “devious method” of applying for a development permit.
Mr Ciantar wrote a detailed letter to the media that had published the article on the altercation with the Ramblers, exercising a right of reply following an article naming him, with a copy to this newsroom and to several authorities involved in the ‘Dingli Interpretation Centre’ investigation request. Noting that he is a private person, Mr Ciantar says that, considering his roles of ‘whistleblower’ and journalist among others, he rejects any attempt on his credibility or reputation.
The motives behind the Ramblers campaign: another ‘devious attempt’?
In his letter, Mr Ciantar quotes publicly available documents which show that Dr Borg was at the inception of the campaign against the Ciantars.
Mr Ciantar quotes the Ramblers in newsletter number 24 of April 2012 telling members that: “The Rabat and Dingli councils have already sought and found our cooperation in this respect regarding the Ta’ Baldu and is-Simblija issues,” referring to accessibility. Mr Ciantar also quotes from a Department of Information press release issued by Dr Borg on 5 July 2015 in which Dr Borg stated: “The person who this week presented a case in front of the Commission (the Permanent Commission Against Corruption) – Mr Noel Ciantar – is the same person who in the past tried to deny the common citizens access to the area know as is-Simblija, Limits of Rabat. At the time, Dr Borg had worked with other NGOs to protect this right.” While noting that the DOI statement did not name the “NGOs”, Mr Ciantar quotes from the Commission Against Corruption report dated 22 December 2015 in which Dr Borg said under oath that “...he (Borg) had to appear in front of the PCAC as Mayor of Dingli with the Ramblers because the witness (Borg) was organising a series of walks to historic sites including is-Simblija...”
“Isn’t this clear evidence of who sought the cooperation of the Ramblers? Was this a case of using an NGO as a front for yet another ‘devious’ attempt?” Mr Ciantar asks.
Mr Ciantar also claims that another statement made by Dr Borg under oath to the Commission Against Corruption that there were court cases against Ciantar about his property is a lie under oath and he challenged Dr Borg to publish a list of such cases.
“Why did Dr Borg organise walks to my family’s property and why did he want public access?” Mr Ciantar asks, pointing to an answer in a newspaper article back in August 2012, which quoted the Ramblers and Dr Borg, and in which Dr Borg had stated that his council wanted to list is-Simblija on the Dingli Heritage Trail and to make the site publicly accessible.
A story starting back in 2008
Mr Ciantar recounts a story starting in around January 2008 when Dr Borg submitted a Mepa application for the ‘Dingli Interpretation Centre’ as part of the Dingli Heritage Trail.
Since 2008, Mr Ciantar claims, the Ramblers have used a section of the media to conduct a campaign with “vitriolic” language alleging that he or his family had misappropriated property at is-Simblija. The campaign initially included another Rabat property, known as Ta’ Baldu, which was likewise planned for inclusion in the Dingli Heritage Trail. Mr Ciantar also recounts that Dr Borg was actively seeking a revision of boundaries between the Rabat and Dingli councils around the Ciantars’ property and that Dr Borg’s council even submitted a Mepa application for Dingli Heritage Trail work, which were to be financed using EU agricultural funds, to be routed through Mr Ciantar’s family farm in Rabat, splitting the farm property in two.
Mr Ciantar’s family opposed the revision of boundaries and the Mepa application in terms of law, and following policy and law, the authorities upheld the Ciantars’ position on both issues.
Request for investigation of Dr Borg’s acts connected to the applications
However, it appears that Dr Borg was compelled to withdraw his Mepa application because Mr Ciantar asked the authorities for a formal investigation into “acts of Dr Borg” in connection with Mepa applications which were to be EU funded.
It also appears that Dr Borg had initially apologised to Mr Ciantar in correspondence to the latter dated 27 July 2010,