Musumeci put on PA retainer before drafting controversial bills

Robert Musumeci, Labour’s foremost apologist for changes in planning rules that favour big business, has been put on a new publicly funded retainer just a few days before starting his latest government assignment.

The Shift can reveal that since April, Musumeci, who has built a thriving architectural business through his close ties with both PN and PL administrations, has been receiving an additional €900 a month from public coffers, in addition to a range of other public consultancies he has secured since 2013.

A spokesman for the Planning Authority confirmed that Musumeci is the principal consultant on the drafting of the new laws and is being paid to do his latest job.

So far, the PA has not made available the contract awarded to Musumeci without any prior call.

Sources told The Shift that Musumeci’s engagement arrived directly from the Office of the Prime Minister, while CEO Johann Buttigieg signed the actual contract.

The PA stated that it has no other consultants engaged specifically to draft the new rules, except Musmeci.

However, sources said that Musumeci engaged other lawyers to help him in his endeavor. No names have been given, nor whether these are also being paid.

Musumeci, a former PN Mayor of Siggiewi, turned Labour as soon as disgraced former Prime Minister Joseph Muscat took over Castille in 2013.

He regularly appears on TV programmes and writes opinions in newspapers, justifying the PL administrations’ actions, publicising himself as an expert.

The architect, who also holds a warrant to work as a lawyer, despite the conflict of interest, has been on the government’s gravy train for years, hopping from one public consultancy to another.

These include providing expertise on various subjects, from planning to law, government property, land, and even pensions.

An exercise conducted by The Shift a few years ago revealed that Musumeci has become the most sought-after architect for development planning applications in Outside Development Zones.

The architect-lawyer is considered the most ‘productive architect to change a recommended refusal to the granting of a permit in such sensitive areas.

The controversial bills, introduced in Parliament just a few days before the summer recess, have been harshly criticised by civil society and even by PL heavyweights, prompting Robert Abela to make a U-turn and announce a consultation process quickly.

So far, the government has refused to scrap the bills altogether but promised a diluted version.

It is not being excluded that the changes are being pushed to coincide with an electoral campaign where big developers are usually the main donors to the Labour Party.