Mark Gaffarena dined with Labour MP Joe Sammut yesterday

The Prime Minister, who as Minister for Lands is directly responsible for the Lands Department, has been trying to distance himself in the public eye from Mark Gaffarena and the swirl of scandal surrounding his shady deals with that department. The PM is even making a show of suing Gaffarena to get back what a department in his own portfolio gave him.

But yesterday evening, Gaffarena dined à deux with Labour MP Joe Sammut at TexMex in Gzira (see photograph). They were deep in conversation and were clearly overheard mentioning the Prime Minister.

Mark Gaffarena has called Joe Sammut as a witness in his defence in the case he is currently fighting in the courts to retain what he has been given by the Lands Department under political direction.

Gaffarena says that Sammut, who was at the time – outrageously – a member of the Malta Environment and Planning Authority board, wrote to the Lands Department asking for the expropriation of the part-share Gaffarena owned in a house in Old Mint Street, Valletta. The letter has gone missing from the Lands Department files, and was not among the documents given to the National Audit Office.

Joe Sammmut is a director of International Tobacco (Malta) Ltd together with Mark Gaffarena, which is currently in dissolution. The company shares are held by Sammut’s wife, Sonia, and by Mark Gaffarena himself (see Companies Registry documents below).

When Sammut was asked by the press in September 2014 to describe the nature of his business relationship with Mark Gaffarena, he was guarded in his response, saying that it is “a professional secret”.