Kazin tar Rahal. The Village Labour Club transplanted into TM. Save them some traffic jams. Get to meet at the Village Labour Club.

The report says that Minister Ian Borg’s controversial development is located in Mgarr, but actually it is located in the highly protected small rural settlement of Santa Katerina, in Rabat Malta. The development took place despite the fact that the office of the Ombudsman investigated the relative permit and found it to be the result of a “grave error” on the part of the Planning Authority.

Borg’s application for the permit was submitted under the name of a third person who Borg says was his project manager. No mention of Borg, or that the development was to serve as his residence, was made in the application which referred to two overlying duplex apartments, each having a floorspace close to 200 squared meters. According to local plan policy, a residence in Santa Katerina can have a maximum floorspace of 200 squared meters, as also confirmed by an Appeals Tribunal decision about the property adjacent to that of Borg. Borg’s residence has a total floorspace of around 360 squared meters plus a basement of more than 100 squared meters.

On the permit application form, the third party declared he was the sole owner of the development site, which had however been acquired by Borg from other third parties less than a month before the application. A week after filing the application, the applicant, acting via Perit Nadia Gatt Curmi, submitted a “correction,” about the ownership, this time declaring Borg’s father as the sole owner. The correction was accompanied with formal paperwork and copies of registered mail documents addressed to Borg’s father in terms of the claim that he was the site owner. Relevant documents were seen by myself on the Planning Authority’s permit file.

Thus, the Planning Authority did not know that Borg was the real applicant, that the development was intended to be his residence, and that he was the site owner.

Upon acquisition of the property, Borg had made multiple written declarations under caution by his Notary that he was acquiring the property for his primary residence.

The permit issued gave Borg two dwellings, each with a floorspace close to the maximum allowed for a residence.

The Ombudsman’s report recommended a review of the permit because the new development had used fresh land, which cannot be developed in small rural settlements.

Although two investigations were under way by the Ombudsman and an Anti-Corruption Commission, Borg contracted the project construction works in October 2015. The investigation conclusions were made public in November-December 2015. The Anti-Corruption Commission accepted the Ombudsman’s conclusions. Yet, Borg proceeded with the development as permitted.