Il-Ġigu to benefit most from Clint Camilleri’s €1 million expropriation

Investigations by The Shift on land recently expropriated by Gozo and Planning Minister Clint Camilleri for €1 million reveal several links to Gozitan developer Francesco Grima, better known as il-Ġigu, a former client and friend of the minister.

The road in Victoria, which at the moment leads to a dead end, was expropriated from private individuals by the Lands Authority following a request by the Gozo minister.

While Clint Camilleri insists that this expropriation is intended to improve traffic management in Gozo’s capital, many in the industry believe that it is more likely to benefit certain developers, mostly il-Ġigu, to build new blocks of flats along the new road.

Grima has already built several apartment blocks along the road leading to the newly expropriated land. He also has several other applications before the Planning Authority, which Minister Camilleri also controls. 

It is unclear whether Grima is also one of the beneficiaries of the €1 million the government paid to expropriate the land. Minister Camilleri told The Shift that he did not know who the beneficiaries were.

In 2023, Minister Camilleri ordered a €500,000 project to reconstruct Triq Guzeppi Schembri—the road leading into the part he has now expropriated, to install new drainage, electricity, and water systems to accommodate the future purposes of a ‘traffic management’ plan.

Incidentally, the project happened in front of one of il-Ġigu’s massive blocks of flats, which led to two other blocks of flats he also built further up the road, touching the now expropriated land.

Significantly, Grima amended one of the more recent applications submitted to the Planning Authority.

Through PA06700/24, Grima requested a permit for “additional openings at lower and upper basement levels approved by PA07957/21 to give access to future neighbouring building”.

This new application will allow him to create access from one of his already-built apartment blocks to more land on the newly expropriated road.

According to construction industry insiders, this application “let the cat out of the bag.”

“Now il-Ġigu wants to open a passage to future neighbouring development, which happens to lead to the road being expropriated by Minister Camilleri. This clearly shows that il-Ġigu already owns other parcels of land along the new expropriated road, which he will turn into more apartment blocks. This may just be a coincidence, but we are not that dumb,” a developer said.

Minister Camilleri’s closeness to Grima and the fact that il-Ġigu was also a client of the minister when Camilleri was still an architect are openly recognised in Gozo. Minister Camilleri avoided a direct answer.

Instead, he said he “ceased providing architectural services in June 2017, following his election and subsequent appointment as parliamentary secretary.”

The Shift also asked Minister Camilleri to declare whether he or his wife, Deborah Camilleri, have ever conducted any property deals with il-Ġigu.

Minister Camilleri said, “he has no involvement in any private practice, nor has any business interests or affiliations with third parties or companies.” He did not mention his wife, Transport Malta’s manager for Gozo.

The Shift also asked the minister to provide details of the valuation report and the architects who provided it.

Shifting the blame onto the Lands Authority, Camilleri said that his ministry’s only involvement was to “submit a request to expropriate a schemed road with an area of 1,300 square metres (and not a 100-metre pathway, as reported by The Times of Malta), and as part of a broader strategy for traffic management in the heart of Victoria.”

Minister Camilleri emphasised that “it is important to note that the role of the (Gozo) ministry was limited solely to the submission of this request in 2021.”

“The ministry does not have access to specific information regarding the owners of the properties or the adjacent properties involved or valuation reports. Such information is not within the ministry’s remit, and questions should be directed to the relevant authority,” he added.

Camilleri is currently under various investigations, including a new road in Nadur that went €10 million over budget, the involvement of Perit Godwin Agius—a close friend—in a €700,000 direct order, and a project to build a new Olympic-size pool that is also under watchful eyes for its mismanagement due to many millions more spent than budgeted.

On the latest expropriation in Victoria, Minister Camilleri told The Shift that he had directed his permanent secretary to initiate an audit by the Internal Audit Investigation Department on the expropriation process of the new road.

Since Camilleri became Gozo minister, Grima has become one of Gozo’s busiest developers. He has been in the news for ignoring planning rules in several projects.

His primary company, Elzan Properties, is currently involved in tens of ongoing developments. He recently acquired, together with other businessmen, the controversial Fort Chambray concession.