Opinion: ‘We can do business’

Do you get the impression that Labour’s behaving like a thief frantically trying to carry off as many valuable items as possible as he flees the property he’s just robbed?

Robert Abela doesn’t seem to care anymore about how disgusting his decisions are.  He just ploughs on relentlessly, enabling the looting of the state and rewarding perpetrators of abuse. He’s in a desperate panic to give away as much of our money as possible to his friends because he knows his time is short.

He’s put Johann Buttigieg back as CEO at the Planning Authority.  He’s given Justyne Caruana a fourth government job by direct order worth €78,000.

He’s given Ryan Pace, a young lawyer who previously served as his aide at his private legal practice 11 different government roles and the remuneration to go with it.  He’s put Joseph Cuschieri at the helm of Project Green.

He’s rewarded Frank Fabri with two consecutive lucrative jobs. He’s rehabilitated Rosianne Cutajar, welcoming her back to Labour’s parliamentary group with open arms. He’s made Randolph Debattista ambassador to Geneva.

None of those decisions make any sense.  The only reason Robert Abela is making them is to suit his own perverted interests.

The massive backlash after his latest decision to reappoint Johann Buttigieg as CEO of the Planning Authority speaks for itself.

ADPD – The Green Party immediately called for an investigation into his appointment, filing a complaint with the Standards Commissioner. Buttigieg is a consultant with leading developer Michael Stivala, the president of the Malta Developers Association.  Carmel Cacopardo asked: How can the developers’ consultant also serve as their regulator?”

NGO Moviment Graffitti described Buttigieg’s move as “back from the skip of history”. They pointed out that Buttigieg was “known for his unrestrained support for the interests of our country’s biggest and most corrupt thieves”.

Graffitti activist Andre Callus labelled his reappointment “shameless” and “surreal” and held him responsible for a “spree” of development during his previous tenure. Callus is right. Buttigieg’s appointment “shows how Robert Abela and his government have become completely unhinged.”

Din l-Art Ħelwa president Patrick Calleja described Buttigieg as “compromised by his consultancies with private developers” and his reappointment as “bad news” for conservation efforts.

Astrid Vella of Flimkien għal-Ambjent Aħjar called Buttigieg “the developers’ advocate”.

Arnold Cassola put it best: “Abela is rehabilitating a proven crook”. And that, it seems, is Abela’s speciality.

Johann Buttigieg used to be a MEPA (Planning Authority) enforcement officer and case officer.  His fortunes suddenly turned when Labour came to power in 2013.

Before he was appointed MEPA CEO, Buttigieg was already “ordering people around.” When then-parliamentary secretary Michael Farrugia was asked about this, he replied that Buttigieg was his “point of reference” and that he could trust him because Buttigieg provided him with precise information about what was going on at MEPA.

Everybody knew that Buttigieg would become CEO before the internal call for applications had even been issued.

Yet soon after his appointment, Buttigieg was accused of a direct conflict of interest. Buttigieg’s wife, Lorraine, was a shareholder in a development business, MMB Ltd, whose other shareholders, Adrian Buttigieg and Emmanuel Farrugia, were involved in a €20 million development with Joseph Portelli.

By 2018, Buttigieg was being paid €100,000, making him one of Malta’s highest-paid public officers. The Planning Authority doggedly refused to reveal his contract.  A Freedom of information request was rejected.  The Data Protection Commissioner had to intervene to order the release of the information.

Buttigieg has much to be grateful to Labour for.  Until 2013, he was earning €35,000 as a case officer.  Just weeks later, his salary doubled to €60,000, and a 15% performance bonus.

Labour was so delighted with Buttigieg’s loyalty that disgraced former prime minister Joseph Muscat awarded him a new contract in April 2016, boosting his pay package to over €90,000.

By 2018, his total pay exceeded €102,000 euro – three times what he had earned before Labour’s victory. That contract included the bizarre clause that entitled his heirs to two years’ salary should Buttigieg pass away.

And boy did Buttigieg reciprocate? As soon as Deborah Schembri, the parliamentary secretary who gave him his pay boost, lost her seat, he swiftly engaged her as legal adviser to his executive council and as  the Planning Authority’s data protection officer, paying her €3,500 per month.

But there was another consultant working at Buttigieg’s Planning Authority – Robert Abela.  And he was earning €17,000 euro per month. From 2013 to 2019, the years when Buttigieg was at Planning Authority’s helm, Abela’s firm received €1.2 million.

Johann Buttigieg, while still Planning Authority CEO, told Yorgen Fenech that he would “do business” with him.  Buttigieg exchanged messages with the man now jailed while awaiting trial over his involvement in Daphne Caruana Galizia’s assassination.

In any decent country, Buttigieg would be investigated.  In Robert Abela’s Malta, he was promoted to head of the Planning Authority.

What’s most telling is that the only people delighted with Buttigieg’s appointment are those who will make even more money.

We have a minister who is an architect and the subject of a magisterial inquiry.  We have a prime minister who is a developer and who actively defends those accused of serious crimes.