The Gaffarenas had to come up with a bank guarantee of €500,000 for their petrol station

The Times of Malta reported a couple of days ago on how the Auditor-General discovered, quite by chance during his investigations into the property deal between the Lands Department and Marco Gaffarena, that the government had also authorised a payment of around €340,000 to his father Joe. The explanation given was that it was compensation for land expropriated in 1987, almost 30 years ago.

I can’t shake off the suspicion that this oddly well-timed payment is somehow linked to the €500,000 bank guarantee which Joe Gaffarena was ordered by the Planning Authority to put up as a prerequisite to having his petrol station considered for sign-off.

Marco Gaffarena leans over a desk at the offices of the Malta Environment & Planning Authority