Opinion: Michael, do yourself a favour

You have to hand it to Michael Farrugia.  Amazingly, he’s been personally slammed by Transparency International for lying to parliament.

Everybody, including Prime Minister Robert Abela, concedes that Farrugia was never the sharpest knife in the drawer.  But to manage, single-handedly, to attract the wrath of an internationally respected anti-corruption organisation achieves the level of embarrassment that few people around the world can boast of.

During the second reading of Labour’s devious magisterial inquiries reform, the notorious Farrugia managed to drag the discussion to a new low.  Farrugia blamed Malta’s lowest-ever score in the corruption perception index not on his government’s avalanche of corruption, but on the Daphne Foundation.

According to the disgraced former minister, the public had to just “Google ‘Transparency International’, choose Malta and see who it is… No wonder Transparency International reports about Malta are what they are.”

The utter ignorance and the devious cynicism of his comments were condemned by Transparency International for what it was – “totally false”.

Transparency International gave the mediocre former minister a lesson in the methodology used in drawing up the corruption index and the data sources referenced – the World Bank, the World Economic Forum and the Economist Intelligence Unit.

In a cutting jibe at Farrugia, Transparency International advised that “instead of criticising civil society organisations like the Daphne Caruana Galizia Foundation, the government of Malta should work with them to strengthen anti-corruption efforts and the rule of law”. Ouch.

Farrugia single-handedly confirmed that Transparency International’s downgrading of Malta on the corruption index was completely justified—not only because of his ill-judged vilification of the Daphne Foundation but also because of his long history of shocking decisions.

One of the first decisions Farrugia made when first appointed minister by Joseph Muscat was to recruit as his adviser at the Housing Authority notary Joe Cilia, a former Labour MP faced with allegations of corruption, abuse and sexual harassment.  Michael Farrugia chose Joe Cilia and paid him €23,600 per year. That was just a foretaste of what Farrugia would deliver.

Farrugia was minister responsible for the shocking and illegal  €274 million St Vincent de Paul concession awarded to a consortium including James Caterers and a DB group company.  The National Audit Office (NAO) investigated that filthy deal, condemning the flagrant breaches of procurement law.

Farrugia’s ministry, according to the NAO, “acted in breach of legislative provisions” and broke public procurement regulations.  The NAO concluded that the whole deal could be deemed invalid.

Farrugia’s pathetic excuse for breaking the law to appease two of Labour’s favourite companies was, “I found a kitchen in a disastrous state”. Farrugia justified the illegal award of a quarter of a billion euro contract.

The NAO was “incredulous” that the deal wasn’t scrutinised and thrown out.  The failure to do so, according to the NAO, was tantamount to “dereliction of duty”.  The minister responsible was Michael Farrugia.

He should thank his lucky stars the NAO was so lenient.  He should be thankful this is Labour’s Malta – otherwise he’d certainly have been investigated, prosecuted and probably convicted.

That’s not Farrugia’s worst offence. Farrugia has the distinguished honour of having been condemned as a liar by Standards Commissioner Joseph Azzopardi who said, “The honorable Farrugia failed to state the truth… this represents a breach of Articles 4.4 and 10.3 of the Ethics Code”. What was it that Farrugia lied about?

Farrugia met Yorgen Fenech, the man now out on bail awaiting trial over his alleged involvement in the barbaric murder of the very journalist whose foundation Farrugia is disgracefully attacking.

When The Times of Malta asked Farrugia, “did you meet Yorgen Fenech?”, Farrugia deceitfully replied he “had no such meeting”. When the Castille visitors’ logbook clearly demonstrated that Farrugia had met Fenech, Farrugia swiftly changed his version: “No such meeting on Mriehel sight (sic) ever took place”.

Farrugia was trying to conceal the meeting, immediately after which Farrugia decided to change the high rise policy to include Imrieħel, allowing Fenech to build the Quad towers.

Farrugia didn’t just lie about meeting Fenech.  He also falsely claimed that an evaluation committee had made the decision to change the high-rise policy.   When asked for documentation to prove this, Farrugia said, “I no longer have access to such documentation”.

Farrugia had ordered Planning Authority CEO Johann Buttigieg: “Mriehel is to be considered as an appropriate location for tall buildings”.

Farrugia also falsely claimed that including Mrieħel in the policy disadvantaged investors, including Fenech.   But the Commissioner for Environment and Planning in the Ombudsman’s office categorically declared, “the argument that Yorgen Fenech was disadvantaged by the FAR revision is not correct”.

Farrugia kept lying.  He claimed it was an inter-ministerial committee that took the decision. When the Standards Commissioner asked Farrugia who sat on that committee, Farrugia couldn’t answer.

When Farrugia was the minister responsible for police, a whistleblower alleged that traffic police were collecting protection money from contractors in return for ignoring traffic contraventions, stealing fuel from their service motorcycles, claiming extra-duty payments while staying at home and claiming motorcycle allowances when they didn’t even have a motorcycle licence.

Farrugia falsely claimed that a probe was launched “as soon as the ministry was informed”.  In fact, officers investigating Traffic police corruption were told from “up top” to “sit on the file”. An investigation was only launched after the exasperated whistleblower wrote to the prime minister, the opposition leader and the media after “nothing was done to stop this”.

The country’s abysmal corruption index is not the Daphne Foundation’s fault.  It’s all because of the appallingly shameless actions of people like Farrugia.

He has inflicted enough harm on the country and its reputation. He even failed Robert Abela’s gutter standards.  Abela appointed Clint Camilleri, Clayton Bartolo and Silvio Schembri, invited Justyne Caruana and Rosianne Cutajar back but kept Farrugia out.

Farrugia should stop embarrassing the country, his party and himself and keep his mouth shut.