Judges, Courts and the New Lands Authority
Whatever one’s opinion of Dr. Lawrence Gonzi when the oil scandal broke, he immediately asked the police to investigate, following which, a number of individuals were taken to court. It is not for me to delve into this case, which is still sub judice. It
Dr Simon Mercieca is senior lecturer, Department of History
Yet, the question that one needs to ask is whether there is any connection between their case and Farrugia Sacco’s appointment as chairman of this new Lands authority. Is the appointment of Judge Emeritus Lino Farrugia Sacco as part-time Chairman of the new Land’s Authority some sort of political reward? And is there any connection between this political recompensation and the oil scandal case?
It is a true fact that Farrugia Sacco was very close to Labour in the dark days of the late 1970s and early 1980s. He then moved on to the Nationalist side and is now supporting Labour once again. But I don’t think that this is just a case of “viva chi regna”.
The new Labour Government has gone far too much out its way to accommodate Judge Farrugia Sacco including the way it dealt with his case of impeachment, which is unfathomable. Now, the Maltese nation is confronted with this new ‘gift’. The Prime Minister has appointed him as part-time Chairman of this new Lands Authority.
Judging from the way this Government works and acts, this new, part-time appointment is definitely coming as a reward. This was not the only political favour that Labour granted the Farrugia Sacco family. One needs to remember that before, 2013, one of the Judge’s sons, David, was presented as one of Labour’s up-coming super candidates. He was the only Labour super candidate who did not make it in the general election. From that point onwards, David has graciously moved out of politics.
This issue of political rewards becomes even more pertinent in the light of what the media is now revealing with regards to the Gozitan contractor Cauchi. Cauchi gained nationwide fame when he became a whistle blower. This is the only case so far where this Government has asked the police to take action. I am here specifically referring to the case of Giovanna Debono’s husband, Anthony. I have written about this issue in the past. My doubts about this case are now being proven right. What has been revealed by the media about Cauchi damages irreparably the credibility of the witness in court. This case reminds me of the Lockerbie case where a Libyan ended up imprisoned on the evidence given by a Maltese, for which evidence the latter was compensated with millions of dollars. At the time, many doubted the credibility of such evidence in court and dubbed the whole affair as some sort of political persecution.
Once again these are similar cases where the courts are now being used for Government’s political business. Faced with such serious allegations against Cauchi, no serious court or judge can take his testimony seriously. The whistle-blower’s credibility is in tatters. This is not a case of political corruption as Government told us but one of a political vendetta against Gozo’s most popular politician.
The third case is Government’s recent allegations regarding the once Lowenbrau factory that Marsovin built on a piece of land in Marsa. Thanks to a press conference held by Dr. Robert Abela, Labour’s spokesman, we learn that Marsovin was in dire straits and needed to sell this piece of land to the Vassallo Group so that Marsovin could redeem its 7.1 million debt with Vassallo. Labour, in turn, is asking Dr. Jason Azzopardi, the Parliamentary Secretary responsible for Lands at the time, to shoulder political responsibility. Labour is referring to the NAO report. But the NAO report clearly states that there was no direct political pressure throughout the entire process.
Nevertheless, this scandal did take place under Dr. Jason Azzopardi’s watch. It is also true that the evidence in the NAO report does not nail Dr. Azzopardi in this whole saga, yet what is strange in this is that Labour is defending Marsovin. But the NAO report is extremely clear. Marsovin was making undue and unnecessary pressure on the Lands Department. Someone, somewhere at the Lands Department wanted to accommodate Marsovin. I don’t believe that the reason why the Labour and state media do not want to cover Mr. Dalli but simply want to focus only on Dr. Jason Azzopardi is derived from fact that the ex-Nationalist Minister Mr. John Dalli was a consultant to Marsovin. My apologies, I forget; Mr. John Dalli is now consultant to our Prime Minister.
We next have the Commissioner of Lands, Mr. Albert Mamo. Labour is presenting him as proof of the corruption committed by Dr. Jason Azzopardi. But if one looks closely at the evidence produced by the NAO report, Mr. Mamo does not come out as clean as Labour wants us to believe. The NAO report clearly states that Mr. Mamo acted in an ambiguous manner.
In the light of the NAO report, I am puzzled why Government has not acted as its predecessor did when Dr. Gonzi asked the police to start criminal investigations when faced with an alleged case of corruption. Why does this Government have a problem in asking the police to investigate this NAO report?
I am sure that due to preelectoral agreements, an honest investigation by the police would embarrass the Government more than the Opposition.
There is no doubt that Marsovin paid a pittance to the Lands Department for the removal of a clause that tied the use of the land that the Government gave to Marsovin explicitly for the building of a bottling factory. This clause was inserted because the land in question was given to Marsovin in perpetual emphyteusis. A similar clause bound another property that was owned by the Government. This concerns the land that was given by Government to the General Workers’ Union. The Government gave this property to the GWU on the condition that it is used solely for union purposes. For this reason, this property was also given in perpetual emphyteusis. Yet, this Government is contending that in the case of the General Workers Union, this clause automatically fell once the Union redeemed the emphyteusis. Thus, once, the Union redeemed its emphyteusis, the condition on their property was automatically cancelled.
To back this claim, the Government is stating that it took legal advice. I can reveal that the person who gave this legal advice was the retired Judge Philip Sciberras. Thus, we have two identical cases: one concerning the Lowenbrau land, where the Parliamentary Secretary Deborah Schembri is rightly stating that a clause linked to a land concession given in emphyteutical rent cannot be redeemed, without the consent of Parliament and only after the owners pay the correct price for that land. Nevertheless, when an identical situation crops up with another building, this time owned by the General Workers Union, the same Junior Minister goes on state media and wrongly states that this is a different case. No it is not. The truth is that the Government cancelled a condition without asking the GWU to pay a penny. It accepted the argument that redeeming the ground rent is enough to free the property owners from any burden or clauses that the Government had imposed on the land. These are double standards. At least, in the Lowenbrau case, the state coffers got near a million, even if the price remains far below the real value of the land. In the one of the GWU, the taxpayers got nothing for a prime site in Valletta. In both cases, the taxpayers are the final losers.
Behind these sagas, there is another loser: this is our Courts. Many think that these scandals are damaging our political parties but the real damage is to our court system. This is why former judges should keep away from issues and bodies that are already riddled with claims of corruption. Unfortunately, by accepting or giving advice to suit a political stand, they are ridiculing the institution that they had worked for. These ‘experts’ will appear to be condoning rather than discouraging corrupt practices in Malta. It is not their integrity that is being damaged but that of the entire judicial system which is already under fire.