Lands Authority tender to legalise public land takeover after false declarations

The Lands Authority allowed a block of flats to be built on public land, ignoring the false declaration of ownership by the developers and then issued a tender for its sale to the same developers in a bid to cover up the irregularities.

An investigation by The Shift shows how the Lands Authority and the Planning Authority failed to address two illegal declarations of ownership from the Gozitan developers and instead gave the green light to a series of procedural manoeuvres to regularise the development.

The scandal concerns a new block of garages, flats, and penthouses named ‘By the Bastion Court’ in Victoria, Gozo.

How did the land grab happen?

In 2010, Gozitan brothers Ronnie and William Gatt – better known as ‘Ta’ Gianmaria’ who own various construction businesses in Gozo, including Gatt Tarmac Ltd, applied to build a block of apartments on a disused plot in Triq ta Wara s-Sur, in Gozo’s capital, Rabat.

In their official declaration filed to the Planning Authority filed through their architect Saviour Micallef, the two brothers declared that they were the sole owners of the 500 square metre plot. They also declared the government did not own any part of the area.

In fact, half of the plot, some 250 square metres, is public land. The Lands Authority, currently under the responsibility of Minister Stefan Zrinzo Azzopardi and CEO Robert Vella, failed to highlight this fact or object to the application.

In 2012, the Planning Authority approved the development of a block of apartments consisting of 23 underground car parking spaces, six large flats and two penthouses spread over seven storeys, three of which are underground.

The construction was delayed, and in 2017 the Planning Authority renewed the permit, with the Gatts again falsely declaring they owned the entire plot.

Internal Lands Authority documents, seen by The Shift, show that at least since 2022, when the development was completed and most of the flats sold by the Gatt brothers, the Lands Authority was fully aware that most of the flats had been built illegally on public land.

Despite this, in November 2022, CEO Robert Vella presented a proposal to the Lands Authority board to sell the land without informing board members that the plot had already been turned into flats by a private developer.

Also, instead of selling the plot at the current market rate, the 250 square metres of public land was offered via a tender filed in January 2024 based “on a perpetual revisable emphyteusis”, redeemable within the first 15 years.

This served to lower the price at which the land was to be purchased – the developers would have to pay a lesser amount to take ownership of the parcel of public property. It also gave them time to sell the flats and make a profit on the plot, built illegally.

Since they owned the land adjacent to the plot they built illegally, they were given the right of first refusal on the tender.

As expected, the only bidders for this ‘tender’ were Ronnie and his wife, Peggy Ann Gatt, one-half of the duo who built the flats illegally.

No explanation from Lands Authority

The Shift contacted Lands Authority Chairman John Vassallo and its CEO Robert Vella to ask for their comments, specifically why no legal action was taken against the Gatt brothers for squatting on public land. Instead, the Lands Authority fixed the problem by giving them the land.

The Shift also asked CEO Robert Vella whether he personally knows the Gatt brothers. He did not answer.

It is as yet unclear whether the Lands Authority auditor, Charmaine Muscat, who is obliged to scrutinise tenders before they are issued, had cleared the deal.