November: FTS CEO resigns
4 November
The EU Presidency Trio (2016 to mid-2017) involving the Slovakian Prime Minister Robert Fico, Dutch Prime Minister Mark Rutte and Maltese Prime Minister Joseph Muscat held talks in order to examine how the EU could work on a number of issues namely migration and Brexit.
All men said the talks were progressive and allowed for open and frank discourse with Dr Muscat going as far to say that the member states actually have a lot of common ground on the issues.
5 November
A large crowd gathered at Dingli Circus in Sliema protesting against the rampant abuse, and over development in various localities in Malta.
The protest was organized by environmental NGO Flimkien Ghal Ambjent Ahjar with the support of the Local Council.
7 November
Residents of Paceville and surrounding areas, business owners and activists gathered outside Le Meridien hotel in St Julian's this evening to voice their concerns regarding the Paceville master plan before a public consultation with the Planning Authority on the project.
The public consultation was dominated by boos and jeers from the 250 strong crowd at Le Meridien Hotel, which was a mix of residents, activists, MPs and business owners.
The group immediately made it clear that they were calling for the master plan to be scrapped in its entirety. They welcome the idea but, in its current form, the plan is structurally flawed for a number of reasons.
A protest organized by a number of environmental organizations was held the following Saturday in front of the 'Love' monument in St Julian's.
13 November
The Malta Independent identified the ultimate beneficial owner of Vitals Global Healthcare as Mark Pawley, who is also the CEO of Oxley Capital Group.
Mr. Pawley came out in strong defence of VGH Director Ram Tumuluri, after local media reports about his past dealings in Canada brought up questions as to his capability of being a Director in such a major project.
‘I have found his professionalism and business conduct across multiple projects to be of very high quality’ he said.
15 November
The iSurveys commissioned by The Malta Independent showed that an absolute majority believe that Minister without Portofolio Konrad Mizzi and the Prime Minister’s chief of staff Keith Schembri should have been sacked over the Panama Papers revelations
The surveys also showed that should an election have been taken in November, the Labour Party (PL) would have won the election by a comfortable 7.7 percentage points
In spite of the survey showing that nearly half of respondents, 47 %, believe that the government is corrupt, Prime Minister Joseph Muscat remains the most trusted political leader in comparison to Leader of the Opposition Simon Busuttil
A staggering 71.9% of respondents believe that Malta’s environment is not being safeguarded, whereas 77.4% rate the present traffic situation in Malta as bad
18 November
The Malta Independent revealed that Transport Malta will impose a no-fly zone with a diameter of 3 kilometers and a height of 2,000 feet around the LNG tanker and power station.
20 November
Georgia won the Junior Eurovision Song Contest which was hosted by Malta at the Mediterranean Conference Centre.
Mariam Mamadashvili from Georgia won this year’s edition with a song called Mzeo which means Sun.
The Maltese entry, Christina Margin, finished sixth with her song Parachute.
20 November
Former Labour Party deputy leader Toni Abela was officially appointed as judge during the swearing-in ceremony presided by the President of Malta, Marie Louise Coleiro Preca.
The ceremony, held at the President’s Palace in Valletta, also saw the appointment of Dr Grazio Mercieca as Magistrate.
Dr Abela has for a long time served as Labour Party lawyer, apart from the political office he held.
23 November
Mott Macdonald, the firm hired by the Planning Authority to draw up the Paceville master plan, appeared in from of Parliamentary Environment Committee.
It was revealed that Mott Macdonald were involved with the Mercury House Project but denied having any conflict of interest.
A debate amongst the committee a few days later would descended into heated arguments between opposing MPs.
25 November
The Constitutional Court granted two extra seats to the Nationalist Party following mistakes committed in the counting process in the last general election.
The Labour Party did not lose any seats which means that, for the first time in history, Parliament will have 71 members.
Mosta Mayor Edwin Vassallo and Peter Micallef were sworn in the following Friday.
PN leader Simon Busuttil said there is one big lesson to be learned from today's Constitutional Court judgement: Never give up and Righteousness prevails.
Prime Minister Joseph Muscat would later say that whilst the government would ensure that the court ruling would be implemented in the shortest time possible, it showed that the current administration did not form part of the establishment.
In a statement, the Labour Party said that the celebration after a loss by 36,000 at the polls showed the Nationalist Party has learnt nothing.
November 30
Philip Rizzo, Foundation of Tomorrow Schools CEO, made a number of accusations against Education Minister Evarist Bartolo and his permanent secretary in his resignation letter.
The case revolves around allegations made against Edward Caruana, a former person of Mr Bartolo’s trust, who was allegedly involved in corruption and bribes in contracts issued by the Foundation for Tomorrow’s Schools.
The Ministry of Education had released a statement saying that Mr Rizzo made false and baseless allegations against Minister that he failed to report cases of allegations and corruption.
Mr Caruana retained the same wage package, of €36,500 per year, after he was transferred to the department of agriculture, from where he has now suspended himself
Mr Caruana was transferred after Philip Rizzo’s announcement .Mr Rizzo declared Minister Bartolo, had done nothing to correct the matter despite it being brought to his attention.
Mr Bartolo said that he always acted appropriately with the information he had at the time and vehemently denies that he did nothing to rectify the irregular behaviour of Mr Caruana.