The professional ethics of our man (not) in Tripoli
Our man NOT in Tripoli – because he fled first, leaving all the Maltese workers behind with no evacuation programme to get them out.
You really must read this report (link below) about a law suit involving Mannie Galea, who is now our man in Libya.
Company X agreed to buy some land from the estate of a deceased person. Three architects (not one, but three) were appointed by the court to establish that the price being paid – Lm600,000 – was in line with the actual market value of the land.
All three said that it was. Company X paid the deposit and entered into the preliminary contract.
Soon after, one of the administrators of the estate was replaced by Mannie Galea and the sale was blocked. This was because Mannie Galea said that the land was worth Lm1.2 million.
Company Z then put in an offer for the same land at Lm800,000, and the offer was accepted. It then turned out that Company Z was Mannie Galea’s client and that he would be the architect for the development on that land.
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http://www.timesofmalta.com/articles/view/20020801/local/company-calls-for-payment-of-interest-on-deposit.169878
If he really did that it makes him our version of Schettino.
Imma kif kollha KORROTTI shame on all of you – hlief fklus ma tarawx addio onesta’ trasparenza u meritokrazija. SHAME on you.
With a conman like this who needs a career diplomat?
Taghna lkoll. Taghna lkoll.
George Vella, ma kontx nahsbek daqshekk pulcinell.
We have our own Schettino.
Nowdays, when the pieces of the puzzle fit, we are surely getting an ugly picture. I have said it time and time again, these days, in order to be given a bun you have to have certain traits and that was what was meant when the meritocracy bull was being dished out.
Concordia all over again.
Do architects have a code of ethics?
Look around you and you can answer that for yourself.
They would gladly demolish Mnajdra and replace it with a modern kerrejja called Neanderthal Mansions.
Not by their record in Malta!
A man with this attitude would be selling visas to Libyans with no problem at all.
On a slightly different topic:
Anyone interested in a “FSRU project update on Malta” should make sure to book a seat at the Floating Regas Conference which will be held at Le Meridien Piccadilly, London, on 4-5 November.
http://www.ibcenergy.com/event/fsru
Mr. Alan Buxton of Gasol plc will be delivering a speech on that subject.
I mean, a speech on “An FSRU project update on Malta”?
I think I can provide the script for that speech:
“Ladies and gentlemen, I am pleased to make a presentation on the FSRU project update on Malta. The main development on the project so far is that the Maltese government has been digging some holes, I mean digging itself into some holes, and regrettably, it hasn’t stopped digging. Other than that, uhm, eh, uhm, er, right, actually, y’know, I mean, you know what I mean?, well, uhm, eh…Thank you very much for your attention. If you have any questions please feel free to make them in writing to Dr. Konrad Mizzi, the Minister of Energy, Health and Phenomenal Podologists in Malta…What the Heck…”
And in other BREAKING NEWS:
Dr. Rilwanu Lukman, Chairman of Gasol plc – the lead developer of the Electrogas power plant project in Malta – has died on 21 July 2014. Mr. Lukman was 75 years old.
Dr. Lukman was a former Secretary General of OPEC and former Minister of Petroleum Resources of the government of Nigeria.
http://www.premiumtimesng.com/news/165270-former-petroleum-minister-rilwanu-lukman-is-dead.html#sthash.73zaOdiN.dpbs
http://www.opec.org/opec_web/en/2889.htm
http://www.gasolplc.com/about-us/board-senior-management.aspx
Mr. Lukman was a co-founder of African Gas Development Corporation Limited, a company registered in the Seychelles. Up to some time ago, his name was listed alongside that of Ethelbert JL Cooper on this Bloomberg Businessweek database:
http://investing.businessweek.com/research/stocks/private/snapshot.asp?privcapId=31338319
Based on the last information publicly available, African Gas Development Corporation Limited is a majority shareholder of Gasol with about 66%.
Gasol was delisted from the London Stock Exchange Alternative Investments Market with effect from 21 July 2014, after a decision taken by the company’s general meeting on 10 July 2014.
http://www.gasolplc.com/media/19149/gasol_shareholder_circular_23_june_14_final.pdf
So Dr. Lukman died precisely on the same day that Gasol was delisted.
Gasol’s website is not updated with this news as yet.
http://www.gasolplc.com/
Who will inherit Dr Lukman’s share holding?
There is no publicly available information to confirm if Dr. Lukman was a shareholder or director of African Gas Development Corporation Limited – he was listed as a founder.
But last year he was appointed as Chairman of Gasol plc – a company controlled by AGDCL. He had served as an advisor to Gasol’s board some years ago, but had resigned from that role at the time he took on Ministerial responsibilites.
So there is a strong likelihood that he was a shareholder or at least a director of AGDCL, but unless this information is published, we cannot know. The jurisdiction of the Seychelles – where AGDCL is registered – permits companies to be registered without publishing the names of shareholders, directors, and without publishing annual reports.
Which is why journalists from the Maltese independent media should investigate – enquire with government if that’s easier – about who controls AGDCL. It is a public right to know who controls Gasol – indirectly via another company (AGDCL) – from the Seychelles, considering how Gasol is lead developer of the Eur 370 million project at Delimara which involves the mooring of a 130 cubic metres LNG gas tanker in the populated Marsaxlokk Bay and the monopoly over the supply of LNG to Malta’s power stations, including the security of supply.
Offshore companies based in the Seychelles are known to use nominee directors, so it is possible also that Dr. Lukman was, at some point, acting in some nominee capacity for AGDCL – maybe at the time of its registration, or maybe later as well.
This website here claims that Dr. Lukman was shareholder and director in a number of offshore companies – even at the time he was serving as Minister of Nigeria’s government.
http://saharareporters.com/2009/01/23/rilwanu-lukmans-tangled-web
“Rilwanu Lukman’s Tangled Web”
– Saharareporters.com (23 January 2009)
“Although he is the minister of petroleum resources, Rilwanu Lukman is a major shareholder and director of a raft of offshore companies active in the oil and gas sector in Nigeria and the surrounding Gulf of Guinea, our investigations showed…”
Having said this, I do think that the death of Dr. Lukman may have an impact on the Malta project – possibly on its financing – and once again, the independent media should get in contact with Dr. Konrad Mizzi to re-confirm that this leaves “everything on track.”
I will return to this subject in another comment, but for now it suffices if I mention that Gasol has been showing some signs of real action in the past year, since Dr. Lukman became its Chairman. One must not underestimate his contacts and his weight in the oil and gas industry from his previous roles at OPEC and the Nigerian government.
http://online.wsj.com/articles/opec-veteran-rilwanu-lukman-dies-1405940730
Sometimes I pinch myself and think that I am reading fiction.
Dawn bis-serjeta’? These people are really not fit for purpose. All Maltese should really kneel down and pray that no catastrophe or grave incidents happen while this lot are in power.
May I remind George Vella that the date when this statement was issued was 26th. July 2014.
“The government last night reiterated its advice against all travel to Libya.
It said in a statement that in view of the worsening situation it also encouraged the Maltese still in Libya to leave the country using commercial means.”
http://www.timesofmalta.com/articles/view/20140726/local/updated-government-reiterates-advice-against-all-travel-to-libya.529321
On the basis of the facts of this case, this guy is absolutely a man who has no ethics and no sense of integrity.
He should have never been appointed as ambassador – he certainly is disqualified on these grounds, even so because he is involved directly in business. We have rediculed our Diplomatic Corp to the lowest level. No wonder Manie is such a coward to flee out of Libya. He should be removed immediately.
I used to think that party loyalty was the PL’s first and foremost consideration when filling public positions. I was wrong. Total lack of integrity is what they are most comfortable with. Sleaze is on the up and up.
With such “negotiating” skills our man in Libya (whether actually in residence or not) should have solved the abduction of our Maltese citizen a long time ago and without endangering his life by returning to his post in a Libya where the condition was officially described by our foreign minister as “not alarming”.
http://www.timesofmalta.com/articles/view/20140726/local/new-walking-trails-launched.529306
Flags of localities should never be used to uncover plaques.
When will we ever learn?
Dan li kien mal- MZPN fi zmieni. Issa ahjar. Sar ta’ Taghna Lkoll ukoll! Veru wasalna fix-xifer.
This country will never learn. There are trained and experienced diplomats, some with the experience of handling difficult and crises situations, who are simply being ignored and under-utilized by the government.
What a parochial attitude by our politicians….
A mirror of our fake PM 20 years later … http://www.dailymail.co.uk/news/article-2706366/From-symbol-hope-incarnation-sleaze-lies-greed-This-week-marks-20-years-Tony-Blair-Labour-leader-Now-Dominic-Sandbrook-asks-former-PM-sunk-low.html
No. A mirror of our fake PM now. Tony Blair took 20 years to get there. It took Muscat just a few months.
Excellent link, thanks for sharing. Definitely a recommended read, and an excellent analysis of Mr. Bliar.
I could quote many excerpts from that piece, but this one should suffice:
“Many Labour members now argue that, far from realising the ideals of socialism, championing the underdog and sticking up for ordinary working-class Britons, Mr Blair simply used their party to propel himself into power and line his own pockets. “
– DailyMail
Sounds exactly like what’s happening here in Malta.
I don’t find any conflicts of interests in the case you quoted, the promise of sale looks vitiated even though three architects (under)estimated the value of the land at Lm600,000. Mannie Galea proved his point he got a better deal for the heirs.Lm200,000 is 33% more and it is no small amount.
His estimate was Lm1.2 million , he got a win-win price.
How I wish I had an administrator like him taking care of the property I may own!
[Daphne – You miss the point. Warranted professionals are not supposed to use their position of trust to their own personal benefit, as it is a breach of that trust. You have no way of knowing – and the estate administrators have no way of knowing – whether Company Z might in fact have shelled out 1.2 million euros, with the excess over and above the 800,000 euros that went to the estate going to Mannie Galea as his cut for sabotaging the sale to Company X.
Somebody like this would also have been capable of doing the same with Company X: if this company were his client, and he stood to gain from the development of the land as its architect, and if perhaps they also gave him a cut over and above that, the sale would have proceeded for 600,000 euros anyway.
This is why it is a conflict of interest: it is not clear whether Mannie Galea worked for his own interest or for that of the estate.
Warranted professionals – architects, notaries, lawyers and accountants – are privy to this kind of information on land deals all the time. They are not supposed to obstruct land deals so that they can buy the land themselves or have their clients buy it which means that they will either get a cut on the deal and/or professional fees for developing the land.
You wouldn’t want somebody like that administering your estate. You’d be forever wondering and worrying why he wants to sell to person X and not to person Y, and whether the full price on the sale has actually gone into your pocket.]
I’m looking at the bottom line: the property owners are Lm200,000 better off than their previous deal.
[Daphne – Yes, but they might well have been 400,000 euros better off not 200,000, and will have no way of knowing whether what they actually got was the full price Mannie Galea’s client was prepared to pay.]
Valuation of a property is prone to be a matter of opinion, it mainly boils down to the maximum price anyone is prepared to buy it.
[Daphne – That is precisely my point. If you Company Z is prepared to pay 1 million euros, then you want that 1 million euros yourself and what to be certain that you’ve got it. You don’t want to have to content yourself with 800,000 euros and the lingering doubt as to whether another 200,000 euros might have gone.]
Mannie Galea found the property owners a better deal than the deal which was struck by the previous administrator.
The court ruled in favor of Mannie Galea’s deal, and company X is just asking for the interest on the deposit. Normally cash deposits on a promise of sale are kept by the notary public.
[Daphne – This is not about the law. This is about ethics. Do we really have to go through all this again, explaining what something does not have to be illegal to be wrong or unethical? Any lawyer, accountant or architect who is regularly involved in property dealings on a professional advisory basis will tell you just how much of this kind of dodgy behaviour goes on, especially where there is no actual owner of an estate but a couple of administrators who have no real loyalty to the heirs and who can’t resist the chance to take a cut when they can. Please believe me when I say that I know what I am talking about – not about Galea himself, as all I know in his regard is this particular case in the newspapers, but there are several others, most notably one very large estate that was systematically dispersed by its administrators over the years to their own suspect advantage. Incidentally, one of the investigations of Magistrate Consuelo Herrera by the Commission for the Administration of Justice involved just such a case with a complainant from Gozo and the method in which some land belonging to the estate of a deceased person was dispersed by the administrator to the advantage of his close associates.]
Mannie Galea was acting as an administrator not as an architect, although he probably found the new buyers through his profession.
[Daphne – You are wrong. He was both the administrator for the vendor and the architect for the buyer, and this emerges clearly from the law report. Once his client bought the land, he was the architect who developed it. That, too, emerges from the report.]
He just informed the land owners that he found them a deal 33% higher than what was already accepted in the promise of sale which he rightfully blocked. In my opinion that was ethically correct.
If anything, the so called court experts who are architects came out to look like fools or downright corrupt when Lm800,000 were offered for a property they estimated to be Lm602,000.
“Daphne – That is precisely my point. If you Company Z is prepared to pay 1 million euros, then you want that 1 million euros yourself and what to be certain that you’ve got it. You don’t want to have to content yourself with 800,000 euros and the lingering doubt as to whether another 200,000 euros might have gone.”
No one was prepared to buy the properties for €1 million (Lm 1.2) – after a public call the most advantageous offer was Lm605,000. The estimate by Galea was Lm1.2 but no buyer came with that kind of money only one with Lm800,000.
[Daphne – I can’t believe you’re that naive. You’re just enjoying the argument. You have no idea whether the company which bought it was prepared to pay a million for it because Mannie Galea’s personal interests did not lie with the vendor but with the purchaser. This is what I am trying so hard to make clear to you. When a person brokers a deal for a vendor, his incentive for brokering the best deal FOR THE VENDOR is the commission he receives. In this case, he was not in a position to receive commission from the vendor, which begs the question as to what he might have received from the purchaser. I am not saying that this happened, but that this is the perfect set of circumstances for it to happen.]
It was the best price the market could offer to the owners in the circumstances.
I wouldn’t look back. The architect/administrator could have been given a commission for all I know.
[Daphne – You do realise that that is wrong, I hope. Architects and estate administrators (let alone those who are both) advising on deals on behalf of the estate/vendor are not permitted to accept commission from the purchaser. Do I really have to explain why?]
My doubts are on the three court so called experts who “approved” the sale for Lm200,000 less.
[Daphne – Mine are not. And that is a separate issue. Regardless of the price at which anything is valued, anybody is free to offer more. That is how auctions work, and how the entire real estate business works too. The fact that an auctioneer has valued an antique table at Eur5,000 and somebody paid Eur20,000 for it does not mean the auctioneer is corrupt or uninformed, but only that the purchaser particularly wanted that specific table.]
I enjoyed the argument, because for me this is how administrators can get away with blue murder with the court’s blessing.
Yes, it was unethical for the architect to take the commission to develop the plots.
It’s a Cosa Nostra organisation from top to bottom.
I know of a case where falsified contracts were presented as proof of ownership of land. Even the ink looked fresh.
The land was taken from a poor part-time farmer, the sole breadwinner of a family of six with health problems in the family. The greedy guy was shot probably on some other similar shady case.
His lawyer keeps €500,000 cash at home.
Enough said.
I met the perit once when he was talking about the Malta Touring Club. I cannot say I was impressed and I would have never thought he was cut out to be a diplomat. Well this is what the PL’s meritocracy boils down to.
Estimates were in MTL no EURO (higher amounts involved)
Ambasciatore Galea! Torni in Libia, cazzo!
Ara dan il-bniedem vera ma jisthix. Kien fil-kumitati PN Birkirkara. Dan sar Laburist issa? Il-vera nies bla sinsla.
Mannie is the same guy who turned to Taghna Lkoll because he requested a tender award of over 500,000 euros from the Works Division under PM Gonzi for a Merchant Street design competition.
His request was outrageous and not in order. I am not surprised about your story here. The guy is a snake.
People like Mannie Galea are the quintessential example of what’s wrong with this place.
These people just don’t understand they’re outclassed and will do everything to remain relevant – everything, that is, but work hard to perfect their art, trade, skill or craft.
I can imagine his designs, and how it would be awkward to criticise them lest it sends him spiralling into despair.
Of course he’ll discuss the girna; it’s the only thing he’ll ever expect to verbally crystallise, and that is where girna becomes the national convention, something to propose as spiritual aspiration. Never something to keep and contain as a piece of the past.
Kenneth Zammit Tabona does the same with his watercolours and the baroque, Astrid with society and every billboard ‘witness for Labour’ with their particular misgivings.
What is these people’s portfolio? That’s it, pathetic little repetitive theorems. No future.
The sooner the PN understands this, and the leader has had to sacrifice significant chapters of his life, so he knows exactly what I’m on about, the better.
This place cannot afford their bluff anymore. Nor can the PN compromise if it intends to take us out of this moral holiday.
Ethics, morality, aesthetics, politics, are one.
Ghandha ragun Mrs. Marlene Farrugia ma thossix komda mal-PL – u bhala hemm aktar imma ma jistghux jghidu kelma ghaliex hemm dittatur imexxi.
So why did she vote for the Enemalta deal?
Does anyone here know whether the Edward Zammit in question is the one who used to work for companies that set-up for fairs, conventions and conferences? A sort of draughtsman who is now chief of staff to Edward Zammit Lewis?
The court ruled in favour of architect Galea apparently. It did this as his actions were beneficial to the estate and therefore legally and ethically correct for the court. It is not clear from the newpaper report what the role of the reverend gentlemen mentioned was. If the architect had some conflict of interest and therefore could have breached some code of ethics, was he reported and/or investigated by the Chamber of Architects?