UPDATED/Michael Falzon, Clint Scerri and Marco Gaffarena

Clint Scerri, the 23-year-old ‘person of trust’ who Michael Falzon has placed in charge of the Lands Department, in his private secretariat

UPDATED: After a nudge from a reader with very sharp eyes, who noticed what he thought was the government watermark (GM in a circle) on the paper on which the note was written, I checked, and sure enough, it is government paper. This means that whoever wrote the note almost certainly knows exactly what he is talking about and had to report it to somebody in frustration. He would be exactly the sort of person for whom the Whistleblower Act is written but apparently the only whistleblowers willing to come forward under a Labour government are corrupt Gozitan contractors who grass on PN politicians so that they get their money and Joseph gets his skandlu.

I was away for a few days and when I returned, I found an anonymous note in the post (see picture), which said:

This is the boy who made Mark Gaffarena a little bit richer.

Mr Scerri works in Mr Michael Falzon’s secretariat and is always at Lands Department with Gaffarena.

I then picked up the Sunday newspapers and saw that Malta Today had received the same information, if not necessarily the same note.

The newspaper reported that it had been told by sources at the Lands Department that Marco Gaffarena was there often, hanging about with Clint Scerri, a ‘person of trust’ employed in Michael Falzon’s private secretariat. Falzon is the parliamentary secretary responsible for the Lands Department.

Malta Today rang Scerri and asked him “point blank why he had accompanied Gaffarena at the Lands Department”. Scerri hesitated before replyin: “Which time are you referring to?” The newspaper then pressed him again to explain why he had been with Gaffarena at the Lands Department in recent months, and Scerri replied: “No comment.”

Did he deny being at the Lands Department with Gaffarena, the newspaper then asked, to which Scerri repeated: “No comment.”

Michael Falzon, Scerri’s boss, initially defended the transaction, telling the media that it was a regular transaction and that no criminal investigation is necessary (that’s for the police to decide, Michael – you’re a lawyer and should know that).

“The only reason it made the news is because of his surname,” Falzon said.

Since then, two separate government inquiries have been launched, though not a police investigation.

Before uploading this anonymous note, I rang Clint Scerri this morning to get his version of events. I was able to ring him directly on his mobile phone because I had been through his entire Facebook Timeline already going back to 2011 and found his number uploaded in response to a friend’s request “bix imoru nixorbu dal weekend PV” back in 2012.

This is how the conversation went.

Me: “Hello, Clint Scerri jekk joghgbok.”

Scerri: “Jien hu.”

Me: “Daphne Caruana Galizia hawn.”

Scerri: silence

Me: “Nista nkellmek hames minuti?”

Scerri: “Le, ta, ma tistax. Bye.”

Me: “Ircevejt nota dwarek u Marco Gaffarena u hemm bzonn insaq..”

He rang off as I was speaking.

I immediately rang back, deciding against ringing Michael Falzon directly to tell him that if he really must appoint his election skivvies to key positions in his office, he should at least make sure they are not total hamalli from the Lazy Corner, because they are representing a government office and should have good manners.

Clint Scerri picked up again.

Me: “Jien ergajt. Se nikteb dwar in-nota li rcevejt u ghandi bzonn ir-risposta tiegh…”

Scerri, cutting me off mid-sentence again: “Le ta mhux se nkellmek. Qieghed meeting. Bye. Bye. Bye. Bye.”

Me, resisting the urge to point out that people who can’t talk because they’re in meetings don’t answer their phones in the first place: “Tista terga ccempilli fuq…”

Scerri: “Bye. Bye.” And he rings off.

Well, I did try to get his side of the story.

More about Clint Scerri coming up later.