Manuel Mallia’s fantastic due diligence
A woman had a letter from the government through the door of her second home, addressed to somebody she had never heard of, but using her house address, telling this person that he had been granted a residence visa.
Due diligence for the sale of citizenship is in the hands of Manuel Mallia and his men. They haven’t bothered to check out their applicant’s address in Malta. What confidence does this give us that they will be checking out anything else?
Let’s face it: Manuel Mallia’s due diligence on his own driver wasn’t exactly impressive. The whole world in Gzira seems to know that he has had a massive Red Bull habit for years and that it makes him agitated, and yet he put this man in charge of his children – at taxpayers’ expense, but that’s another issue.
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http://www.timesofmalta.com/articles/view/20141203/local/-Residency-applicant-used-my-address-to-get-permit-.546629
May I suggest that an appeal be made to those who receive letters similar to this to hand them over to somebody, preferably an Opposition MP, to be stored safely somewhere, They may be required in future to prove a point.
This case came out in public but no one in government seems to think the public has a right to know how and why it happened. Saying that they are now asking for a rent agreement does not leave the tax paying public here or there.
Was it the rule for a person to be simply asked to put down an address, without any supporting documents or did this person also manage to present some fake documents?
Was this person charged and what exercise was done to find out if this practice was rampant?
Have we got to the stage where the government is so anxious to make sure everything seems rosy, that every loose bolt is hammered over irrespective of what the real solution for any issue is? Is this a government simply concerned with keeping a tight lid on, no matter what?
A rent agreement does not prove residence. John Dalli had a rent agreement in the Bahamas but did he live there for any significant length of time.
A comment below the story in The Times:
“Isn’t it against the law to open other people’s mail?”
I give up!
I gave up in March 2013
Kemm hu zibel dar-ragel
http://inewsmalta.com/dart/20141203-writna-dnubiet-kbar-fil-kunsill-malti-tal-isport-busuttil
Qalha din illum jew le?
http://www.timesofmalta.com/articles/view/20140521/local/labour-mp-adds-4600-car-allowance-to-list-of-political-pay-packets.519871
And then the government tells us it’s worried by the boat people and we have to be careful of Arabs and Africans “because they may be terrorists”.
Sempliciment tal- biki
Veru ma jafx jisthi,
“The Minister spoke about the Citizenship scheme, saying that “We are currently attracting the best talent. After these people, through due diligence, applications are rigorously checked. The opposition says we are handing them out like pastizzi. Every application is properly vetted”.
http://www.independent.com.mt/articles/2014-12-03/local-news/Gvern-li-Jisma-not-a-single-question-was-asked-about-Minister-Mallia-s-former-driver-6736126810
The illegality of such actions needs to override any claim to secrecy over the Henley contract.
And having said that, people need to remember that the Passport Sale is a scam that should never have existed in the first place.
Ann Fenech thinks otherwise.
Ann Fenech would be correct not to think otherwise, or to choose between business interests and politics.
It’s a matter of principle.
Well, you can hardly expect Manuel Mallia to put a damper on things when Joseph Muscat has been travelling more than Obama to sell his blessed passports.
Oh, I forgot. The score is 36-31. http://i.imgur.com/yRzt3Ru.png
Please help me understand, if I park on a helipad, would the person leasing the car be the one to decide my punishment or the police force?
Where is the charge for blocking the emergency services?
It seems that suing is a new widespread fear weapon where logic has gone out the window.
http://www.timesofmalta.com/articles/view/20141203/local/driver-who-blocked-helipad-was-suspended-for-a-week.546726
Try vexatious suits next.
Whoever wrote that statement in the Times of Malta must be joking. Who can blame me if I no longer believe any official statement issued by this government or its agencies.
They have lied so much that everything they say is immediately considered a lie. I bet if the government today said that the earth is round, people will immediately revert to the flat-earth theory.
Why did it take so long for Malta Enterprise to issue any kind od statement? Who was the employee who parked there? Is a week suspension an adequate punishment? Was this employee just following the example of Ministers who park anywhere at any time? Will I be just suspended for a week if a warden catches me parking badly on a double yellow line?
An employee at Malta Enterprise may refer to anyone, from the chairman right down to the floor sweeper at the office.
I can only tell whoever wrote that statement to pull the other leg as it happens to have Christmas bells on it.
The Malta Enterprise statement makes one thing abundantly clear: the driver of the car parked on the helipad is a supporter (at least) of the Labour Party.
If he were not, his name would have been splashed in bright neon-lights all over the media. He would have been arrested on the spot, dragged in chains to police headquarters and detained for at least 48 hours. He would have been lucky just to get out still breathing.
And they have the nerve to say they regret the incident was turned into a political football.
The Labour Party and its supporters are renowned for turning everything into a political issue, even basic human rights. Labour-leaning people have every right, even the right to trample over the rights of others.
If you don’t openly support Labour, you have no right to claim any rights at all.
These people are just shameless. Thank God it seems that PN is gaining momentum.
Please tell God that the momentum has to be quintuplicated.
Actually it would be best if God increased the voter’s IQ. Whatever the momentum gained, the voter will remain the same.
Some wonderful advertising for Malta here:
http://www.washingtonpost.com/blogs/worldviews/wp/2014/12/03/7-countries-where-you-can-become-a-citizen-or-resident-if-you-have-the-cash/
Maybe due to his long history of defending criminals his sense of due diligence needs some recalibration.
U iva, billi jixrob ir-Red Bull ma qatel lill-hadd. U iva, billi ghamel indirizz falz mhux money launderer. U iva…
The PN governments of the last 25 years made mistakes, maybe even had a couple of scandals, but incredibly Labour have managed much to create many more scandals, mistakes, coverups and other damage in only 20 months.
I say incredibly because even though I didn’t have that much faith in them to begin with I honestly never expected them to mess up so badly and in such little time.
I did, I kept telling everyone that the house of cards will crumble down within 24 months. People laughed at me but i wasn’t far off.
ChrisM nobody did. They have beaten all expectations.
This is an unmitigated disaster without any parallel in Maltese political history.
Bidu Gdid Direzzjoni Gdida Taghna Lkoll Dizastru Assolut.
What scandals? What mistakes? What cover-ups? Mela ma smajtux lil Joseph jew? Il-gvern miexi sew and all these stories are made up by the Nationalist opposition.
And what if the ministry knew which places are vacant, or like in this case, a secondary home, and the applicant will be supplied by such address by someone in the ministry itself to pass the due diligence? After all Manwel Mallia (and even other members of parliament) has a lot of faithful canavassers who know the district areas too well.
Was it actually the applicant who stole the address or was it supplied by the people selling the passports.
http://www.independent.com.mt/articles/2014-12-03/local-news/Sale-of-petroleum-division-Minister-chooses-not-to-divulge-information-on-government-owned-entity-6736126795
‘..In October, the European Commission had said that it was not in a position to comment on whether the government-to-government €83 million sale of Enemalta’s petroleum division amounts to state aid…’
How long before the anti-EU howling?
Did you read the comment about next year’s budget being a month earlier?
http://www.independent.com.mt/articles/2014-12-03/local-news/Coast-Road-works-Salina-residents-argue-TM-working-against-set-conditions-Mepa-CEO-explains-6736126792
Watching them in action can be puzzling.
‘…Mepa CEO says report referred to access at the back of Salini and not the ramps, that would be treated as a “reserved matter”.
Mr Buttigieg told this newsroom that the report drawn up by himself when he served as a case officer referred to a different access point to the village and not the two access points at the front of the village where the ramps stood.
He said that it was always planned that the passage at the back of the village would be treated as a separate situation.
On this point, residents argued that the passage Mr Buttigieg refers to is non-existent on Mepa’s plans of the area. They said that they are not even insured if something happens on the said passage as it is not even recognised by Mepa….’
Or better, how these residents are expected to get in and out of their hamlet remains a ‘reserved matter’, given that he seems to have arbitrarily chosen to remove the ramps and forgot to approve an alternative access route, even for insurance’s sake.
One thing at a time, ghax nithawdu, dil-burokrazija zejda.
Is it true that the emerging situation (the creation of a new passage) will eventually lead to a baruni (of Lorry Sant’s golden age) obtaining a permit for a fuel station in the area? It may be wise to follow this ‘innocent’ saga.
Not even surprised, I know someone who is renting an apartment in Msida and who been receiving letters addressed to a foreigner in her mailbox.
She never took the letters that were not addressed to her, thinking that they were addressed to someone who had rented the apartment before she did.
She recently realised that someone was actually collecting the letters since they’re easy to take out of the mailbox without even opening it… and she’s suspecting that something similar to this story is happening.
Then she had better film the guy or tell net news to start filming that letter box.
Actually, all you need to do is go to the post-office and fill in a ‘redirection of mail’-form and hey presto, the postman delivers it right to your new address.
Come on Daphne. I cannot understand how you can be so nasty with our Manuel. Look how popular he is and what a welcome he received tonight on the way to discuss the budget.
Those nasty Nats are framing him. He had nothing to do with the cover-up. Miskin, he’s as pure as the driven snow.
Has anyone considered the possibility that the ministry may have simply got the address wrong.
Let’s say it was a mistake as you are suggesting, don’t you think that would be grossly unprofessional (an very amateurish) of the ministry to send personal information to the wrong address?
No it shouldn’t be; under normal due diligence procedures, one has to present to the authorities at least one recent water and electricity bill.
Recently I had a letter addressed to an Indian person on my address, never happened before but did not connect it to the passport sale scheme. Had I known this was happening I would have opened it.
Is there a way I could check if someone else is registered on my address?
Send an enquiry to Henley?
http://www.washingtonpost.com/blogs/worldviews/wp/2014/12/03/7-countries-where-you-can-become-a-citizen-or-resident-if-you-have-the-cash/
Wait a minute, weren’t the estate agents and developers suckered into believing that they would be selling hundreds of high-end million-euro plus properties because of the IIP scheme?
And here we have someone simply using a stolen address and apparently getting away with it.
Will this individuals citizenship application be revoked immediately on the basis that, even before becoming a citizen he started by giving false information which does not augur well for what we can expect of his conduct as a Maltese citizen in the future?
These foreigners with fictitious addresses in Malta are clear proof of Muscat’s government fantastic due negligence in ascertaining any genuine residency qualification of undesirables seeking to buy Malta citizenship and passports for clandestine infiltration into Schengen countries
During the short time that my property was on an estate agent’s list some years ago, I remember receiving mail addressed to somebody I didn’t know, and I became suspicious that my letter box was being tampered with. I found out later (from this very blog) that the estate agent employee who I had been dealing with had a criminal record and was very familiar with a particular high profile architect and his equally high flying side-kick.