Construction minister tight-lipped on details of Shanghai trip

Construction Minister Jonathan Attard has declined to give details about the composition of a recent official delegation to Shanghai, amid questions over the presence of two of his former legal and business partners during the same visit.

Questions sent by The Shift to Attard’s ministry, seeking details of the minister’s delegation and an explanation for the presence of Labour MP Ramona Attard and lawyer Charlon Gouder in Shanghai at the same time, went unanswered. The Shift has since filed a freedom of information request.

Minister Attard, responsible for justice and reform of the construction sector, travelled to China several weeks ago at the head of a sizeable delegation from his ministry. The visit included meetings with Chinese authorities and participation in an international construction and property exhibition aimed at marketing high-end development projects.

At the Luxury Property Shanghai Expo, the minister was also accompanied by a delegation from Property Malta, a public–private partnership that promotes the Maltese real estate sector overseas and which included dozens of local developers and contractors.

However, attention was drawn to the coincidental presence at the same meetings and social events – including a reception at Malta’s consulate in Shanghai – of Ramona Attard and Charlon Gouder, both former partners of the minister at a legal firm.

Several delegates said the pair were initially assumed to be part of the minister’s entourage.

Both Attard and Gouder, former reporters at Labour Party media outlet ONE TV who later became lawyers while on government retainers, insisted with The Shift that they were in Shanghai on private business and had paid for their own travel and expenses.

Charlon Gouder, who operates a sole legal practice named Gouder & Associates, said he was participating in a separate mission to market Maltese residency programmes to millionaires. Ramona Attard accompanied him, despite not being formally employed by his firm.

Before entering government, Jonathan Attard practised law alongside Ramona Attard and Charlon Gouder at AGG Advocates.

In addition to legal services, Gouder, currently defending disgraced former Prime Minister Joseph Muscat, also dabbles in other lucrative non-legal briefs, such as lobbying, mostly with the Government, on behalf of the bluefin tuna industry and building contractors and developers.

Several people present at meetings attended by the minister said the parallel presence of his former partners “jarred” with some delegates, despite official insistence that the overlap was coincidental. They said that the sight of the three former partners operating in proximity – one in an official ministerial capacity and the others engaged in commercial promotion – risked creating perceptions of a conflict of interest, even in the absence of formal links.